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.
Her former Husband which sent her away may not take her again after that she is defiled for that is abomination before the Lord. Math. 5.31 It hath been said Whosoever shall put away his Wife let him give her a writing of Divorcement But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his Wife saving for the cause of Fornication causeth her to commit Adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is Divorcèd committeth Adultery Math. 19.3 The Pharisees also came unto him tempting him and saying unto him Is it lawful for a man to put away his Wife for every cause And he answered and said unto them Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them Male and Female And said for this cause shall a man leave Father and Mother and shall cleave to his Wife and they twain shall be one flesh Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder They say unto him Why did Moses then command to give a writing of Divorcement and to put her away He saith unto them Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffer'd you to put away your Wives but from the beginning it was not so Here it is plain Christ refers them to the Law of Nature as the Law which was greater then the Politick or Positive Law of Moses And this was only tolerated by Moses for the hardness of their hearts and though it were lawful for Moses or any other Legislator to tolerate a lesser Evil which he was not able by reason of the hardness of their hearts to restrain yet was it not lawful for the People to practise it but they should be punished for it by God though they were not by Moses And hence doth manifestly follow That all those Laws which were mala in se and contrary to the Law of Nature which was from the beginning though Tolerated by Moses who was not able to reform them yet were they not properly the Law of Moses but wicked Customs which they received from Aegyptians Syrians Canaanites and other Nations and ought not to have been practised by the Jews then nor by the Christians now Of Laws taken from the Customs of Idolatrous Nations for a small tast take these that follow Exod. 21.2 If thou buy an Hebrew Servant six Years he shall Serve and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing Verse 4. If his Master have given him a Wife and she have born him Sons or Daughters The Wife and her Children shall be her Masters and he shall go out by himself Mahomet's was more fair then this for he being Amorous of the Wife of Zeid his Slave freely infranchised him though he were not bound to do it as the Hebrew Master was and besides his infranchisement gave him Money for his Wife And thereupon saith God appointed him to Marry her after she was Repudiated to the end that true beleivers might do the like and not think it an Error but what God hath appointed Alcor Cap. 33.260 And David did far worse then Mahomet as to the Wife of the Subject Vriah his Example therefore is as unfit a Rule to judg Marriage by as that of Moses and Mahomet Levit. 19.20 It is said And whosoever lieth carnally with a Woman that is a Bond-maid betrothed to an Husband and not at all Redeemed nor Freedom given her she shall be scourged they shall not be put to death because she was not Free And he shall bring his Trepass-Offering unto the Lord unto the Door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation even a Ram for a Trespass-Offering And the Priest shall make an Atonement for him with a Ram of the Trespass-Offering before the Lord for his sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him 1. This Law is unjust for it punisheth the weaker Vessel who is a poor Virgin with scourging and only fines the rich Lecher a Ram so he may commit Whoredom with as many betrothed Virgins if not Free-women for the price of a Ram apeice 2. Here is nothing provided for satisfaction of the Damage of the Master for the abuse of his Servant and dishonour of his Family nor of the Husband to whom she was betrothed but let him bring a Ram his sin shall be forgiven him toties quoties as 't is the Custom of some old Pagan Manners and Manours if the Copyhold Widow be unchast she shall forfeit her Copyhold unless she bestride a Ram and ride to the next Court and say these Words following For my Incontinence I do this Task Therefore to have again my Land I ask Numb 21.14 17. Notwithstanding the Midianitish Women had quarter given them and were Captives yet in cold blood Moses more barbarously then the Heathens themselves used to do commands the Souldiers to kill every Male amongst the little ones and kill every Woman that have known Man by lying with them but all the Women-children that have not known Man by lying with him keep alive for your selves And Deut. 21.11 The Souldiers are licensed when they take Captive Women after some idle Ceremonies of cutting their Hair and paring their Nails to lye with them and turn them off again when they pleased which examples though from Moses who was no more infallible in this then David in the act of Vriah's Wife of cruelty and uncleanness are not to be followed but abhorred of all Christians The Jews had likewise a custom of Contracting and Espousing the parties before Marriage of the great inconveniences of which shall be spoken after under the proper Title The ways of Marriage of the Jews Jewish Ceremonies of marriage not appointed by Moses Law Saith Moses de Cotsi was either with Money or Instrument or Copulation with Mony as when they bought one to be their Wife with Instrument as when done by Contract in writing by Copulation as by lying with any single Woman though no Consensus yet Concubitus fecit Matrimonium Especially if Conception followed as appears in the case of Jacob and Leah where there was no Consensus on Jacob's part but only Concubitus Conceptio At the Jewish marriage a Rabbi marries them and if the Bride be a Virgin Wine is to be drunk in a narrow-mouth'd Glass and if she be a Widow in a broad-mouth'd Glass and an Egg must not be forgot to be thrown at the Bride and broken to foretell an easie delivery The manner of the Jewes Marriage is The Bridegroom wears about his Neck an Hare-cloth the end of which the Rabbi puts on the Bride's head after example of Ruth who desired to be cover'd with the skirt of Boaz then the Rabbi takes a glass full of Wine and gives it the Brideman and Bride that they may drink then he takes the Bridegroom's Gold Ring and asks of the standers by if it be good and worth the money given for it then puts it on the Bride's finger then he takes another glass
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 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
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
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
cùm vix esset dare causam quin ratione peccati possit deferri ad Ecclesiam Object 3 Stat. Merton gives them no Jurisdiction It 's alledged That it appears by the Statute of Merton that Henry the Third writ in his time to the Bishop to certifie Marriage and Bastardy First It is to be understood therefore that in the time of Pope Alexander the Third Anno Dom. 1160. which was Anno 6. H. 2. in whose time all Matrimonial Causes beonged to the King's Courts This Constitution was made That Children born before Solemnization of Matrimony where Matrimony followed should be as Legitimate to inherit to their Ancestors as those that were born after Matrimony It is likewise further to be known that King John the Father of Henry the Third who made this Statute of Merton following was by the then Pope Innocent Excommunicated King John Excommunicated as likewise at the same time was the Emperor Otho and the whole Kingdom of England Interdicted and so remained for the space of Six Years Three Months and Fourteen Days during all which time there was no Church open for Marriages or Burials but the poorer People were buried like Dogs in Ditches and where they married God knows Through which King John was driven to such distress by his own Bishops and Barons and the French assisting the Pope against him that he was forced before he could get to be released of this Excommunication to pay the Pope vast Sums of Money and to lay down his Crown and Scepter Mantle Sword and Ring the Ensigns of his Royalty at the feet of Pandolphus the Pope's Legat and submit himself to the Mercy and Judgment of the Church Two Days some write Six it was before the Legat restored him to his Crown which he likewise received again on no better Terms then to hold the Kingdom of England and Lordship of Ireland from the See of Rome at the Annual Tribute of a Thousand Marks Silver and the Excommunication was not to be taken off but deferred till further and full satisfaction was made to the Clergy which was not done till Two Years after The Bishops being hereby arrived at so great an height of their Tyrannical Power over this King The Bishops usurped the exercise of Ecclesistical Laws by force over their Kings As that when the King having obtained absolution had gather'd a great Army to have been revenged on the French King the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury told him 't was against his Oath at his Absolution and the King in a great passion reply'd He would not defer the Business for his pleasure seeing Lay-judgment appertained not to him the Arch-Bishop presumed to threaten his native Soveraign that unless he desisted he would Excommunicate him Note therefore That in the time of H. 3. who was the Eldest Son of King John the Bishops continued to assume the Power of Lay-judments as well in Marriages as they did of shutting up of Churches in which they were made from the Pope to whom they had inforced King John to surrender his Crown and not from the King 's Writ as that Statute of Merton shews rather a proud Renunciation and scorn to answer the King 's Writ concerning Marriage then any use permitted by them to the King of the same unless he would as his Father had done lay down again his Crown to them and have Marriage judg'd according to the Law of the Pope for otherwise they tell him plainly They neither will nor can answer his Writ as appears by the Statute it self the words whereof follow 20 H. 3. Cap. 9. To the King 's Writ of Bastardy Whether one being born before Matrimony may Inherit in like manner as he that is born after Matrimony All the Bishops answer'd That they would not nor could not answer to it because it was directly against the common Order of the Church that is meant the Romish Church And all the Bishops instanted the Lords that they would consent that all such as were born afore Matrimony should be Legitimated as well as they who were born within Matrimony as to the succession of Inheritance for so much as the Church accepteth such for Legitimate And all the Earls and Barons answer'd with one voice That they would not change the Laws of the Realm which hitherto have been used and approved Coke 2 part Inst 97. It is said Though the Bishops are Spiritual Persons yet in case of general Bastardy when the King writes to them to certifie who is lawful Heir to any Lands or other Inheritances they ought to certifie according to the Law and Custom of England and not according to the Roman Canons and Constitutions yet if they do make their Certificate according to the Canon Law No remedy against Bishops making Certificates contrary to the King's Laws General Bastardy uâ—urped by Bishops not given them by Law and not the Law of the Land there appears no Remedy unless such a one as is worse then the Disease Sir Galfred le Scrope Cheif Justice saith Before this Statute of Merton the Party pleaded not general Bastardy but that he was born out of Espousals and the Bishop ought to certifie whether he were born before Espousals or not and according to that Certificate to proceed to Judgment according to the Law of the Land And the Prelates answered That they could not nor would not to this Writ answer and therefore ever since special Bastardy viz. that the Defendant c. was born before Espousals hath been Try'd in the King's Courts and general Bastardy in the Bishops Court and herewith agree out old Books and the constant Opinion of the Judges ever since Coke 2 part Inst 99. It being before granted That the Law of England cannot be changed but by an Act of Parliament and Magna Charta being before made and being a Declaration of the ancient Common Law First That no Freeman was to be put out of his Free-hold or Inheritance but per legale Judicium parium and there being no cause of its own Nature more Temporal or more concerning Succession to Temporal Inheritance then Marriage It was contrary to Magna Charta and the Common Law to judg the Fact of it by any other Judges then Juries and the Law of it by any other Judges then those of Temporal Courts and though the Pope and Bishops in those Superstitious times forced the Kings many times as they did King John to yeild his Crown and the Subjects to yeild their Marriages and other Temporal Rights to their Arbitrary and Saleable Sentence for fear of Excommunication yet doth not this any way prove that the Jurisdiction of Marriage was ever granted them by any Law or Act of Parliament or could be without it were contrary to a known Common Law and Act of Parliament which expressly gave the trial of Temporal Rights and Inheritances to a Legale Judicium parium and not to any Ecclesiastical Judges or Laws Now therefore it being clear they had
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
not to be objected against us because we are not subject to Foraign Laws Again that custom or use of Civil or Canon-Laws or Precedents doth not make Civil or Canon-Law the Law of England appears by the use of Sentences of Philosophers and Poets and Precedents of Historians all as much used in Courts of Records of Courts of Judicature as the Civil or Canon-Law yet doth not this use or custom make these Sentences of Philosophy and Poets and the like to be the Law of England or obligatory to the People of England unless such Sentences of Philosophers and Poets are selected from the rest and inacted or confirmed by Act of Parliament to be hereafter the Laws of England And they are so far otherwise from being Laws of England that Cardinal Woolsey Mich. 21. H. 8. Coram Rege was Indicted That he intended Antiquissimas Angliae Leges penitus subvertere enervare universumque hoc Regnum Angliae ejusdem Regni populum Legibus imperialibus vulgo dictis Legibus Civilibus earundem Legum Canonibus in perpetuum subjugare subducere c Let any shew a sensible reason why the Bishops and Ecclesiastical Judges who actually bring in the whole heap of Civil and Canon Laws to judge of the Marriages Filiation and Succession of the Subjects and amongst them the new coin'd Law at the Council of Trent made when Forein Jurisdiction was abolish'd and thereby actually deprive him of that invaluable liberty to which every Native Subject is born and is confirmed to him by so many Acts of Parliament And those great Fundamental Acts Magna Charta and the Petition of Right to have his Birth-right tried per legale judicium parium deserve not as high a censure by Parliament as Cardinal Woolsey had who only intended to do the same And if any hath any mind to consult besides the Laws and Precedents against Forein Laws and Precedents Bod. lib. 1. of a Common-wealth fo 107 108. will give him some satisfaction Forein Laws become not the Laws of this Land by being used by Lawyers where he saith It was in most strong Terms judged by a Decree in the Court of Paris in the Case of Philip the Second the French King That be was not bound unto the customs of the Civil Law at such time as they who were next kindred would have redeemed of him the Countrey of Guyens howbeit that many both think and write the Prince to be bound to that Law for that they think that Law to be Common to all Nations and not Common to any City And yet than the which Law the Romans themselves in some Cases thought nothing more unreasonable But our Ancestors would not have even our Subjects bound to the Roman Laws as we see in the Ancient Records that Philip the Fair erecting the Parliament of Paris and Mompelier declared That they should not be bound unto the Roman Laws And in the erection of Universities the Kings have always declared That their purpose was to have the Civil and Canon Laws in them publickly professed and taught to make use thereof at their discretion but not that the Subjects should be any way bound thereto lest they should seem to derogate from the Laws of their own Countrey by advancing the Laws of strangers And for the same cause Alaricus King of the Goths forbad upon pain of death any Man to alledge the Roman Laws contrary to his Decrees and Ordinances which M. Charles du Moulin my Companion and Ornament of all Lawyers mistaking is therefore with him very angry and in reproach calleth him therefore barbarous howbeit that nothing was therein by Alaricus decreed or done but that which every wise Prince would of good right have decreed and done For Subjects will so long both remember and hope for the Government of Strangers as they are Govern'd by their Laws The like Edict there is of King Charles the Fair and an old Decree of the Court of Paris whereby we are expresly forbidden to alledge the Laws of the Romans against the Laws and Customs of our Ancestors Yea the King of Spain also hath upon Capital pain forbidden any Man to alledge the Roman Laws in confirmation of their own Laws as Oldrad writeth And albeit there was nothing in the Laws and Customs of their Country which differ'd from the Roman Laws yet such is the force of that Edict that all men may understand that the Judges in deciding of the Subjects Causes were not bound unto the Roman Laws And therefore much less the Prince himself who thought it a thing dangerous to have his Subjects bound unto strange Laws And worthy he is to be accounted a Traitor that dares to oppose strange Laws and strange Decrees against the Laws of his own Prince In which doings when the Spaniards did too much offend Stephen King of Spain forbad the Roman Laws to be at all taught in Spain as Polycrates writeth Which was more straightly provided for by King Alphonsus the Tenth who commanded the Magistrates and Judges to come unto the Prince himself and as often as there was nothing written in the Laws of their Country concerning the matter in Question Wherein Baldus is mistaken when he writeth the Italians to be bound to the Roman Laws but the French no otherwise than so far as they should seem unto them to agree with Equity and Reason For the one is as little bound as the other howbeit that Italy Spain the Countries of Province Savoy Languedoc and Lyonnois use the Roman Laws more then other People And that Frederick Barbarossa the Emperour caused the Books of the Roman Laws to be published and taught the greatest part whereof have yet no place in Italy and much less in Germany But there is much difference betwixt a Right and a Law for a Right still without command respecteth nothing but that which is good and upright but a Law importeth a Commandment for the Law is nothing else but the Commandment of a Soveraign using of his Soveraign Power Wherefore then as a Soveraign is not bound unto the Laws of the Greeks nor of any other stranger whatsoever he be no more is he bound unto the Roman Laws more then that they are conformable unto the Law of Nature which is the Law whereunto saith Pindarus all Kings and Princes are subject From which we are not to except either the Pope or the Emperour as some pernicious Flaterers do saying That those two viz. the Pope and the Emperour may of Right without cause take unto themselves the Goods of their Subjects Object 5 Forein Laws cannot be baptized with the name of the King's Laws without act of Parliament As to what is mention'd of baptizing Forein Ecclesiastical Laws by the name of the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws of England he seems still to mistake and puts baptizing by the name where it should have been confirmation by the name and that confirmation too to be given not by the Bishops but the
Parliament Besides there is not de facto that name given for the Ecclesiastical Court is kept in the Bishop's name and not in the King's name And the Bishop takes all the profits and not the King Fain he would mend the matter and says That a Leet is kept in the Lord's name and he hath the profits yet it is the King's Court. It might better been said it was once the King 's before he gave it or sold it to the Lord of the Leet as are many Lands not being Ancient Crown-Lands The King purchases but if he sell again such Lands for valuable considerations the propriety as well as the name of such Lands is then in the buyer and not in the King Therefore though he hath set out his Book as baptized both in Latin and English by the name of de jure Regis Ecclesiastico and of the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws yet with due Reverence to the opinion of so great a Father of the Law it may be said there appears none either to baptize or confirm the name nor any God-father to it but himself Neither will the Title of the King 's Temporal Laws set upon Magna Charta which gives that liberty to every Subject of Tryal of his Birth-right per legale judicium parium be consistent with the Title of the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws which take it away and give it to a Trial by Certificate of the Bishop Object 6 It is again by Coke alledged and Precedents cited That Edward the Confessor William the First Henry the First Henry the Third Edward the First Edward the Second and all English Kings have Govern'd and Ruled both the Kingdom and the Holy Church and have given Jurisdiction to Abbots Priors and Bishops and have granted prohibitions when they transcended the bounds of their Jurisdictions and that Reges sacro oleo uncti sunt spiritualis Jurisdictionis capaces but still this is nihil ad rhombum nor pertinent to make good the Name or Title he hath set his Book of the King 's Ecclesiastical Laws For there is a great difference if he had Entitled it de jurisdictione Regis Ecclesiastica for the King's Jurisdiction and the King's Laws are clean divers things And there is a great difference where he grants Jurisdiction to Ecclesiastical Persons and where he grants them by what Laws they shall exercise that Jurisdiction for the King 's of England have Anciently granted Jurisdiction and Commissions to Ecclesiastical persons as Bishops and Priests to be Judges in the King's-Bench Chancery and other Courts yet could they not grant them power to judge by any other Laws than the Laws of England except by Act of Parliament Then as to granting prohibitions where the King had not or could not by Law grant them Jurisdiction proves nothing that any King did or could by Law grant them Jurisdiction of general Bastardy without Act of Parliament or that there was any Law or Act of Parliament which gave them Jurisdiction of general Bastardy because the King's Courts durst not grant prohibitions for general Bastardy For in those superstitious times neither the King nor Judges dar'd provoke their Excommunication and therefore at the making of the Statute of Merton when the contest was between the Ecclesiastical and Secular Power which of them should give the Law to Marriage The Temporal Judges for fear of their Excommunication took only like the Jackal what the Lion refused and left them which they called special Bastardy So quod non capit Christus capit fiscus which is intended of the false Christ for the true Christ took nothing from it but paid tribute to it Besides if many Jurisdictions should judge by other Laws this would be destructive both to the King and Subject Though the King therefore give the Sword he cannot change the Ballance as is in effect confess'd by Coke himself 3 pt Inst fol. 120. in his Exposition of the Statute 27 E. 3. of Praemunire where he saith The right of King and Subjects not triable per alias Leges or aliud Examen then the laws of the Land If Freehold and Inheritance Goods or Chatâ—les Debts or Duties wherein the King and Subjects have a right or property should be judged per aliam legem which he mention'd before to be Civil or Canon Law And other Trial which he makes to be any Trial except by Jury or be drawn ad aliud examen These three mischiefs endeavour'd to be prevented in the said Statute would necessarily follow viz. Disherison of the King and his Crown the Disherison of all his People and the undoing of the Common Law And fol. 121. he farther saith Some have made a question whether since the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was acknowleged in the Crown an Ecclesiastical Judge holding Plea of a Temporal Matter belonging to the Common Law doth incur the danger of a Praemunire Though hereof is no question at all yet lest any Man might be led into an Error in a Case so dangerous we will clear this point by Reason Precedent and Authority The Reason holdeth still to draw the Matter ad aliud examen c. And he citeth before several Precedents and says The reason of all these Cases is because it drawes matters Triable at Common Law ad aliud examen and to be discussed per aliam legem Peter du Moulin that famous Protestant Divine writes That there was a a Book printed in the former Age entitle The Canons of the Apostles Anti-Christian whereby the Temporal power of the Pope is wholly taken away And the sixth Canon expresly forbids a Bishop to meddle in Civil affairs And in the 84th Canon are these words A Bishop that meddles in War or seeks to obtain these two things that is to say the Empire of Rome and the Sacerdotal Government let him be deposed for the things of Caesar are to be given to Caesar and the things of God to God And that one Arnold who Preached this Doctrine That the Pope had no Jurisdiction nor any thing to do with the Temporal affairs with great applause was in the year 1155 made a Martyr and most cruelly burnt at Rome by the order of Pope Adrian And this agrees with the Testimony of Christ himself Bishops Judg. not only as to Jurisdiction of Marriage and Legitimation but all other matters wherein Temporal propriety comes in question that he refused the Jurisdiction of it as appears Luk. 12.13 And one of the company said unto him Master speak unto my Brother that he divide the inheritance with me And he said unto him Man who made me a Judge or Divider over you It appears therefore the Episcopal Jurisdiction of judging or dividing Temporal goods in the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Courts came not from Christ but was usurped by Anti-Christ by force of Fire and Faggot and is from him derived to Bishops and Ecclesiastical Courts to the destruction of the rights of Princes and the liberty and propriety of the people
and Earth and all the good Angels his faithful Ministers to assist me in the defence of the faithful obedience to the Law of the Gospel and of his Church Assist me O Christ assist me O Jesu assist me O Holy Spirit Ed. Kelly It appeareth written on a White Crucifix My Grace is greater then the Commandment for my Grace is such that Mad-men shall attain Blessedness Verily I say unto you If I command a man to kill his Brother and he doth it not he is the Child of Sin and Death c. Dr. d ee Hereupon we were in great amazement and greif of mind that so impure a Doctrine should proceed from such as I from the beginning and hitherto had judged and undoubtedly esteemed good Angels and had unto Edward Kelly offer'd my Soul as a pawn to indemnifie Edward Kellys crediting of them as the good and faithful Ministers of Almighty God But now my heart was sore afflicted on many causes and Mr. Edward Kelly had as he now thought he had a just cause of leaving dealing with them any more and his Prayer to God had been as he said of a long time that he might have power to do it Afterward I made some Declaration to our Wives of this our great greif by reason of the Command laid upon us to use Matrimonial Acts between us four in common which thing was strange to the Women and they hoped of some more comfortable issue of the matter and so for that time I left off After Edward Kelly had been four hours in seeing new Apparitions giving him admonition to receive the same Doctrine with threatning of Judgment upon us if we should not and many other things told me We departed each to Bed where I found my Wife awake attending to hear some new matter of me And we being alone I then told her and said Jane I see there is no other remedy but as hath been said of our cross Matching so it must needs be done Thereupon she fell a weeping and trembling for a quarter of an hour and I pacified her as well as I could and so in the fear of God and beleiving of his Admonishments did persuade her that she shewed her self prettily resolved to be content for God's sake and his secret purposes to obey the Heavenly admonishment But Edward Kelly who had divers other Apparitions made to him in his own Chamber remained notwithstanding in his purpose of forsaking and utterly discrediting these Creatures A Spirit calling himself Raphael the Arch-Angel there speaketh to them who were not satisfied with the Testimony of Madimi Raphael Dear is thy Wife more dear is Wisdom and most dear ought I to be unto thee Thou being Elected tremblest and by doubting sinnest all these things are lawful unto you I admonish you as the Children of God to consider your Vocation and the love of God towards you and not to prefer your Wisdom before the Wisdom of the Highest whose Mercy is so great towards you Consider that if he find you obstinate the Plâ—gues of hainous Sinners and the contemners of the gifts of God shall fall upon you Therefore shew your selves lovers of him that hath led you and cover'd you with a mighty Sheild or shortly look for the reward of those who contemn the Wisdom and Majesty of the Highest I Raphael counsel you to make a Covenant with the Highest and to esteem his Wing more then your lives After some little discouse and conference there they went to Bed April 20th 1587. April 21th 1587. John Dee Edward Kelly Jane d ee and Jane Kelly promise to God though above their Carnal reason in Abraham-like faith and obedience to subscribe a Covenant to him to have one another in common April 22th 1587. Edward Kelly having on further consideration a new reluctancy concerning this promiscuous Matrimony makes a Declaration in writing that he would from that forward no farther meddle therein April 24th There are further Prayers made to God desiring a further manifestation of his pleasure concerning this new Doctrine so contrary to the Laws formerly promulgated by him A great flame of Fire appeareth in the principal stone standing on the Table before Edward Kelly and behold one suddenly seemeth to come into the South Window of the Chappel right against Edward Kelly but before that the stone was heaved up an handful high and set down again well which thing Edward Kelly did think signified some strange matter toward Then after the man who came in at the Window seem'd to have his nether parts in a Cloud and with spread abroad Arms to come towards Edward Kelly at which sight he shrunk back somewhat and then that Creature took up between both his hands the principal stone and frame of Gold and mounted up away as he came Edward Kelly catch'd at it but could not touch it at which thing so taken and carried away and at the sight thereof Edward Kelly was in great fear and trembling but Dr. Dee was glad and well pleased A Fire next appears in the lesser stone left behind on the Table and a man in the fire with flaxen hair hanging down on him being naked to the Paps with spots of blood upon him and in the shape of Christ Christ If I had intended to have overthrown you or brought you to confusion or suffered you to be led into temptation beyond your strength and power then had the Seas long since swallowed you yea there had not a Soul lived amongst you But the Law and tidings of Gladness in Mankind are both grounded in me I am the beginning and the end behold I was even my self the figure of Misery and Death for your Sins why therefore disdain you to be figured after me And as I have made you the figure of two People to come so have I likewise sanctified you in an holy Ordinance giving you the first-fruits of the time to come contrary to my self I teach you nothing for this Commandment is not to be given to Mortal men but is given to you to manifest your Faith I I am the first and the last and I will be Shepherd overall that the Kingdom of my Father may come and that my Spirit may be on all flesh where there shall be no Law nor need of light for I my self will be their light for ever I am Holy and Holiness it self and out of me cometh no unclean thing and if there be any of you that seeketh a Miracle at my hands and beleiveth in my words let him or her present themselves here next Monday and he shall perceive that I was the Judg of Abiram and the God of Abraham May 3d. being Sunday 1587. Stylo Novo A Covenant with God is drawn into form that according to his new Commandment they will by Abraham-like-faith and obedience use Matrimonial Acts with one another in common and was subscribed by John Dee Edward Kelly Jane Dee and Joan Kelly at Trebon-Castle The Covenant being thus formed written
henceforth all Iustices of or in the Courts where any Plea is or shall be depending taken or moved in which Pleas so depending taken or moved Bastarvy shall be alledged against any person party to the same Plea and thereupon an Issue joyned which by the Law ought to be certified by the ordinary that the Iudges or one Iudge of or in the Courts where the said Plea is or shall be depending taken or moved before the time that any Writ of Certificate pass out of the same Court to the Ordinary to certifie upon the Issue so joyned or to be Ioyned shall make a Remembrance under their Seals or his Seal at the suit of the Demandant or Tenant Plaintiff or Defendant in the Plea in which the Bastardy is or shall be alledged reciting the Issue that is joyned in the same Plea of Bastardy and certifying to the Chancellor of the King of England for the time being to the intent that thereupon Proclamation be made in the said Chancery by threé Months once in every Month that all persons pretending any interest to object against the parties which pretendeth himself to be Mulier that they sue to the ordinary to whom the Writ of Certificate is or shall be directed to make their allegations and objections against the party which pretendeth him to be Mulier as the Law of the Holy Church requireth And the said Chancellor having notice of the said Remembrance and Issue joyned and being required by the said Demandant or Tenant Plaintiff or Defendant having the said Remembrance to make the said Proclamation as aforesaid The same Chancellor for the time being shall cause to be made Proclamation in the form aforesaid And the Proclamation so made shall certifie in the Court where the said Plea in which the Bastardy is alledged another time shall be depending And that the Iudges of or in the Court where the same Plea is or shall be depending taken or moved before any Proclamation so to be made in the Chancery make one time such Proclamation openly in the same Court and also another time when the Proclamatâ—on shall be certified by the Chancellor of England and made in the form above rehearsed then the said Iudge shall award the said Writ of Certificate to the Ordinary to certifie upon Issue so joyned or to be joyned and if any Writ of Certificate be made or granted before that all the Proclamations in the form aforesaid be made and certified that then the said Writ of Certificate and the Certificate of the Ordinary thereupon made or to be made shall be void in Law and of none effect And if any Writ before this time be directed to any Ordinary to certifie if the said Eleanor Wife of James be Bastard or not and at this time not certified if it be certified hereafter by virtue of the said Writ that the same Certificate of the said Ordinary so made be void and of none effect Rast pla fo 29.105.261.280.577.609 That one Circuit of Action is too much is well known where 't is unnecessary as on penal Bonds sued at Common Law the party injuried is repell'd from any Plea of Equity either that he paid the Money and the Creditor refuses to deliver up his Bond or to give him an acquittance or that he received an acquittance but it was since burnt by fire or he hath since by any other casualty lost it and forces him to a costly tedious and sometimes inextricable Suit for releif in the Chancery whereby the remedy unless for a very great Sum becomes worse then the disease All which Pleas of Equity and others of the like nature might have been far better determin'd in the same Court of Common-Law as is excellently well done in Scotland by admitting those Pleas of Equity in the same Court and on proof of them restricting the Penalty of the Bond to principal Interest Cost and Damage But here the Birth-right of the Subject wherein not only all his Bonds but Lands and Goods are concern'd is put to a tedious Circuit in the Chancery of Suite and Proclamations and after that again to another Circuit of Action in the Spiritual Court and then again to a third Circuit to Common-Law of Prohibitions and then again to a fourth Circuit back to the Spiritual Court by a Consultation Circuits enough to tire any horse much more any honest man yet shall he never come to the end of his journey at last or if he do he shall be rob'd with Theives and as this Statute mentions if true men fail false Witnesses shall be suborn'd against him which if he had staid in one Court and rid no Circuit at all but the matter had been there tried by Twelve good men and true at a Nisi Prius in his own Country none of these Theives or false Witnesses would have dared to appear as they presume to do in so great a Forest as London in the Chancery Ecclesiastical Courts Affidavits and Examiners Officers there aâ—terrible oppression of the Subjects or if they did they would be easily taken or discover'd There are four mischiefs appear in this Statute caused by Ecclesiastical Laws 1. Circuit of Action 2. Endless delay and costs 3. Subornation and perjury of Witnesses 4. Interfering of Jurisdictions One in ordine ad Spiritualia the other in ordine ad Temporalia one in ordine ad naturalem Equitatem the other in ordine ad Legem communem and as to the same certâ—inly a greater Calamity cannot fall on the miserable Client then to be made a Borderer between two Enemies-Countries an Hare between two Dogs a Mouse between two Cats and a Corne between two Milstones Priesthood changed changeth the Law It is said Heb. 7.12 The Priesthood being changed there is of necessity a change also of the Law Either therefore the Papists Preisthood is not intended to be changed into a Protestant-Priesthood but the whole Papal power translated in time of Popery by the 25. H. 8.21 from Rome to Lambeth must so stand for ever or if it be intended this Papal-Priesthood shall be changed into a Protestant 't is not the changing the Person from Italian to English or the place from Tyber to Thames will do it but 't is the changing of the Laws from Papal to Protestant for Papal Laws and a Protestant Priesthood are no more consistent then Fire and Water Many more great exceptions there are against Ecclesiastical Laws which my great hast forceth me to pretermit CHAP. VI. Marriage Filiation Aliment and Succession 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 Of the profound Popery of the common Lawyers of Transubstantiation of two persons into one person and the mischeifs thereof A Note taken at Kings-Bench of the miraculous Transubstantiation of a Shoulder of Mutton between a Man and Woman Of the Law of Transubstantiation of the Children of the Wife
conclusions or similitudes to run on four Feet or to say Because all these Communicants being Men and Women are by the Scripture call'd one Body Figurative or Politick Therefore to conclude that they are one Body natural and one Person natural And as no one body natural or one person natural can have a distinct propriety or a right of Action against it self so none of these Communicants Men and Women can have the same against one another Excellent Doctrine for the one Body made of many and Society of the Adamites I shall not here dispute which is the greatest Absurdity of Transubstantiation of Bread into Flesh in the Mass or of the Flesh of a Woman into the Flesh of a Man in Marriage or whether gains most the Priest by the former or the Lawyer by the later Cheat. But this is easily shewn that the Communicants in the later Fantastick Sacrament lose more Temporally then in the former though perhaps the other may Spiritually And in Compliment to the weaker Sex I shall first do them right in shewing the manifold mischeifs thereby ensue to them Wife made a slave incapable of propriety First By the fiction of their being made the Priest one Person with the Husband Whatsoever they have is the Husbands and what the Husband hath is his own they lose all the right of Propriety in their own Goods to the Husband as perfectly as if they had been bought by him for Slaves at a Market though the Husband hath therefore on the Wedding-Day transubstantiated into him a very fine Wife all Silk and Satin Velvet Cloth of Silver Cloth of Gold Pearl and pretious Stones Yet after the firâ—â— Month when the Moon changeth he may sell away St. Paul's Impertinent putting the Money in his pocket and transubstantiate her into a plain Petticoat and Wastcoat to last as long as she lives and when she dies bury her in Woollen and this is all the poor Woman gets by having him before Mr. Parson in his Temple and making him to promise with all my Worldly Goods I thee endow which made a wary old Gentleman as saith the Woman's Lawyer pag. 121. an acquaintant of his lest his Son-in-law though he did not take his Daughter down in her Wedding-shoes should let her after go without stockings and break her heart to see all her old feathers moult and no new spring and enforce her to take new Wings to fly to Heaven before he was willing to spare her therefore he in good earnest bound his son-in-Son-in-law in a good sound bond to give his Daughter every year so many Gowns Kirtles pairs of Silk-stockings c. Her Estate forfeited and consumed by her Husband's Vices 2. If her Husband hath mortgaged or fraudulently made away his Estate before marriage if he carelessly after marriage spend it on other Women Drinking Diceing or other viciousness if he is Out-lawed Attainted for Felony Rebellion Treason or taken in Execution for Debt or Surety-ship all her Lands Goods and Portion shall be taken from her during his life which may be longer then hers and she may wear Rags or starve if she can neither work nor beg Rob'd of her Trust in the Testator's Goods as well as her own 3. If she have a great Estate as Executrix her Husband will change the bonds into his own name sell the Leases change the propriety of all the Goods and when he dies leave her not a farthing of the Testator's Goods or her own The Turk is not so turkish to rob his Wife who is a Free-woman or to transubstantiate the propriety of her Goods into his for so 't is said Alchor cap. 4. pag. 49. O ye that believe in God it is not lawful for you to inherit what is your Wives by force and this is not only of their own goods they brought with them but likewise of the gifts of the Husband 's Goods given them by himself for it is further said ibid. Take not violently away what you have given them unless they be surprized in manifest Adultery But amongst Christians Harlots are in better condition then Wives for though the Scripture 1 Cor. 6.16 sayes in the same words of an Harlot as of a Wife Harlot loseth no Propriety Know ye not that he which is joyned to an Harlot is one Body for two saith he shall be one flesh yet never was so absurd Exposition made that the Harlot loseth the propriety of her Goods and Rights to him who lies with her It appears likewise by the Roman forms of Divorce that the married Wives who were Free-women notwithstanding their marriage retained their propriety the words of which form were Res tuas tibi habeto the word tuas shews propriety 4. He may cheat her in all his Promises or Contracts made with her before marriage as a Man promised a Women who knew no Quirks in Law if she would marry him to leave her so much worth after his death and she thereon marries him this promise is extinguished by the marriage and she shall never have benefit of it Compell'd to pay her Husband's Debts 5. He may by this Transubstantiation by many tricks in Law eause others to bring actions without cause against his Wife for his own use and Arrest Out-law and cast her in Goal at his pleasure A. B. and D. his Wife were bound by obligation in forty pounds for payment of twenty he suffer'd a Judgment by default and after suffer'd his Wife to be taken in Execution and put in Prison by his assent whereby the Wife was driven to procure her own friends to pay the Condemnation for her Husband and redeem her from her Turkish Pateroon otherwise she might long enough have lain in Algiers for he would till this was done give no Warrant for any Writ of Error and this was the Case of the good Wife at the Clock in Aldersgate-street and the Judges pittied her but little for as my Manuscript says they only smiled at the unkind and subtile device And this was done 42 Eliz. which shews that the poor Woman married by Priest though they had a Queen Regnant there had little better justice done them than now Made an Out-Law a Villain a pagan an Alien a Person forfeited c. 6. Another mischief is by this Transubstantiation she not only loses the right of propriety as a slave but the right of action as an Out-law disabled to sue for any injury done her and to express the same more full and plainly she by this blessed Sacrament of marriage by a Priest is made a Villain a Pagan an Alien an Excommunicate a Nun of Lisbon an attainted in a Praemunire a non habens personam standi in judicio against her Husband a person convicted forfeited and confiscated to his own use and what is worst of all when he hath robbed and rifled her of all she hath he may exercise his Tartarian Authority and beat her because she hath no more Is this the
But they follow therein the old Cheat of all the old Pagan Legislators Thus did the old Aegyptian Priests call themselves Angels of God and were so called by the People and Menes their most ancient Law-giver recorded in the World alledged his Laws received from Mercury the Pagan Michael or the Arch-Angel of the Messages of the gods Minos the Legislator of Creet to soar a pitch above the Authority of the Laws of Menes attributed his to Jupiter himself and alledged to the People That the great God was his Guest in his House for the space of Nine Years together and Dined and Supped with him every day till he had indicted to him those Divine Laws and he was able to write them for Publication Thus did the Pope over-top that Law which was given by the disposition of Angels by pretence of Inspiration of the Holy Ghost whom he sent to the Council of Trent in a Cloak-bag And Mahomet to out-do the Pope made himself the Holy-Ghost affirming himself to be the Comforter promised by Christ John 14.25 26. These things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you but the Comforter which is the Holy-Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Now the Bishops pretend to a greater Power from Christ then Mahomet he only in this claims Power to Teach but the Bishops claim Power Jure Divino from Christ to Judg the World yet whether they shew any better Commission or Mission then he Jure Divino let any judg The gift of Prophecy Priests and Prophets at mortal Feud if true goes not by Descent those who therefore pretend to be Successors and call themselves Priests are fain to counterfeit either a Law or Gift from the Predecessor's Prophet whereby the Priesthood was made Hereditary or Successive in that manner by which they take it yet both the old Prophet and the new Priest a newer Prophet pretending a newer Revelation or Mission again over-reaches and deceives the deceivers which is the reason that Priests pretending to be Hereditary or Successive are always at mortal Feud with new Prophets true or false the former who have no pretence but Possession or a Descent cast and a Possessary Action dreading to be Evicted by a Writ of right Patent under the Great Seal of Mission either of a true or counterâ—eit Miracle But such patches of Ecclesiastical Policy are now worn so thread-bare and full of holes that since Grammar-Schools Boys themselves peep thorough and laugh to spie the Devil hid under the Pall of pretended Jure Divino without a Sign of Mission Episcopacy must now therefore change the Scene and shew a Sign on the open Theater if they pretend from God and their Letters of Credence if they pretend from Christ and the Probat of the Will and Testament hic in curia probat if they pretend to be Successors Testamentary or they are likely to find none but Papists or Noncomposses to give them implicit Faith for the Turk himself is not now so gross witted as to admit either Priest or Prophet Jure Divino without a Sign of Mission as is well known to all versed in those Histories and may appear in the example following Of the Sign of Mission required by the Grand Seignior of Sabatai Sevi a counterfeit Jewish Messiah Sabatai Sevi had his Design speeded would have been Competitor with the Grand Signior and all the Emperors and Kings of the Nations for their Dominions on the Title of a Messiah who is Jure Divino above all Earthly Princes and they should have felt the effect of a Jewish Excommunication to have been deposed from their Thrones could he but have shewn a Divine Patent for the doing as his deluded followers firmly beleived he would do He was the Son of Mordecai Sevi an inhabitant of Smyrna who gained his living by being a Broker to an English Merchant in that place but his Son being addicted to study became to be a notable proficient in the Hebrew Tongue Divinity and Metaphysics and vented such new Doctrine in the Law of the Jews under the notion of being their Messiah so long expected as made the Jews forsake their Trades and Negotiations whereby they lived and to venture all on the hopes of their purchases in the new Kingdom of their Messiah Yet notwithstanding his Disciples were so numerous as to be almost innumerable there was one Samuel Penya a Jew in Smyrna of good Estate and Reputation so much opposed him by arguments that he shewed not the signes of Mission of the Messiah according to Scripture and the Doctrine of the Rabbi's that he raised such a Tumult against him as drove him out of the Synagogue with danger of his life Yet being seconded by the Devil this could not crush his Ambitious design for within a while after his Enemy Penya's Family were possess'd and his Daughter Prophesied and fell into strange extasies And this was not done only in his House but four hundred Men and Women more likewise Prophesied of the growing Kingdom of Sabatai and young Infants who could scarce stammer out a syllable to their Mothers repeat and pronounce plainly the name of Sabatai the Messiah and Son of God and voices were heard to sound from their Stomach and Entrails and those of riper years fell into Trances foamed at Mouth and by inspiration from the Devil recounted the future Prosperity and deliverance of the Israelites their Visions of the Lyon of Judah and the Triumph of Sabatai which made Penya Recant and turn Convert and Preach more for him then ever he Preached against him The noise of which Conversion of this persecuting Saul to the faith hugely increased the conflux of multitudes to increase the Power of the Messiah and nothing wanted now but that Sabatai should shew some Miracle for a Sign of his Mission to so great a multitude of strangers who had not yet seen or heard any besides the Inspirations which horribly puzled Sabatai though the imagination of the People was so vitiated that any Leigerdemane-Trick would have pass'd with them for an high Miracle There happen'd an occasion wherein Sabatai was to appear in behalf of his Subjects before the Cadi or Judg of the City to demand ease and releif against some oppressions which greived them it was thought necessary the Miracle should appear now or never when Sabatai appearing with a formal and Pharisaical Gravity which he had starcht on some on the sudden avouched to see a Pillar of Fire between him and the Cadi which report presently run through the whole Room and some who strongly fancied vowed and swore they saw it the alarm of the Miracle ran likewise as speedily through those in the outer-yard and was likewise received at home by Wives and Children in a moment and the then Faith of this Miracle was so far rooted that all those who question'd or beleived it
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-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.
Christian And there are too many who say make me a Bishop and I will be a Protestant So did the Bishop of Spalato in late memory leave Italy while Paul the Fifth was Pope because his Ambition was not so high prefer'd as he desired and fled to England and profess'd himself as Protestant and Preached against the Pope but when the old Pope was dead and his Kinsman got into the Chair being not made a Bishop here he return'd back again to Rome and turn'd Catholick again in hope of great preferment there from his Kinsman but in stead of the same they took him and burnt him for an Apostate There want not likewise in the present time Examples of those who profess'd themselves Protestants till not finding there Ambitious expectations satisfied with Bishopricks and other great places have turned Papists in hope to find the same amongst Them 2. If Frame err not too many have been promoted to their Bishopricks by the Moyne and Recommendations of Great Catholicks whose Creatures they were and how unfit Judges of Marriage Filiation and Succession to Protestant Kingdoms such Bishops must be is left to all true Protestants to consider 10. They Judg by Fictions and not by Truth Grant a Judg but liberty to judg by Fictions he will make what Religion what Law what Equity what Justice he pleaseth he will be the only God to be adored and Judg to be feared He will be like the Pope the only Proprietor of the World and justifie his Title to the Sale of Heaven Earth and Hell The Fictions by which Bishops judg Marriage and the mischiefs which insue by them have been most touch'd before As that Intention of minds and not conjunction 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. 4. That Children begot by Adulterers were begot by the Husband if he was within the Four Seas P. 72 73. 5. That two Persons are Transubstantiated into one by the words of the Priest pronouncing them Man and Wife P. 66 67. c. That a Child is not Sib or Kin or of Consanguinity nor a Child to the Father who begot him or the Mother who bare him P. 14 15. 6. There is another Fiction by which they judg not mention'd before which is Benediction of the Priest for it was an old Superstition nursed in the People by the old Pagan Priests That their Wives should be Barren unless they were bless'd by the Priest Hence the old Arabians were wont to Swear by God and the Bellies of their Wives and Mahomet himself Alchor Cap. 4. P. 47. teacheth the same as a most Sacred Oath and Sterility the greatest Curse to be feared And though Jacob teach That the blessing of Children ought only to be asked and expected from God and not from Man and certainly it were in truth the greatest Idolatry to desire or expect that Blessing from the Priest and were to make him God as appears Benediction of the Priest on Marriage a Fiction Gen. 30.1 And when Rachel saw she bare Jacob no Children Rachel envied her Sister and said unto Jacob give me Children or else I die And Jacob 's anger was kindled against Rachel and said Am I in Gods stead who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the Womb But to infuse the like Superstition into the Hearts of Christians for the increase of his gain Soter Pope of Rome decreed No Marriage should be lawful without the Parties receiving the Benediction of the Priest Plat. Func And by a Decree in France all Children born in Marriages not blessed by a Romish Priest are made incapable to succeed to any Goods of Father and Mother Everard 24. The multitude of Pilgrimages to Saints and Idols that is to say to the Priests who keep them and take the gifts of all they can delude to ask of them the Benediction of Children are known Mr. Stopford Paganopap 111. of this Superstition or Idolatry mentions a noted Example Henry the Third King of France sent a Princely Gift to the Virgin of Loretto viz. a worthy Cup to obtain Issue Male by her Intercession a Gift for substance and work most excellent for the Cup it self is of Hollowed Gem at this day called the Azure Stone 'T is also very big and intermingled with Golden Veins the Cover whereof is of turned Crystal set in Gold and adorned with many excellent Jewels in the top of the Cover an Angel of Gold doth hold in his hand a Lilly of Diamonds the Arms of the Kingdom of France which Lilly doth consist of three Diamonds joined together in Gold with admirable Art the Foot of the Cup being Emerald is bound about and supported with Gold and beautified with Pretious Stones and rich Orient Pearls in the bottom of the Foot the Giver and the Cause of the Gift is engraven in manner following O Queen who by thy worthy Son Didst joyful Blessing bring To all the World Bless with a Son The Kingdom and the King Henry III. King of France and Polonia in the Year of our Salvation MDLXXXIV Certificate of a Bishop false St. Germyn lib. 2.69 raises a Question Whether if the true Heir is certified by the Bishop a Bastard as Ten to One if there happen a Contest between two Heirs but he is whether he that is of Council with the Adverse Party may with good Conscience advise his Client to make Use of this false Certificate of the Bishop in which without any Conscience which he so much pretends he saith he may for these Reasons First because it is a Maxime in the Law That a private mischief shall be suffer'd before a publick Inconvenience and the publick inconvenience would be that if the Certificate of the Bishop should not be final then in this Case if another Writ should be after sent to another Bishop in another Action to certifie whether he were a Bastard or not peradventure that Bishop would certifie that he were a Mulier that is to say lawfully begot and then he should recover as Heir and so he should in one self-Court be taken for Mulier and Bastard for avoiding which contrariety the Law will suffer no more Writs to go forth in that Case and suffers all men to take advantage of the Certificate rather than suffer such a Contradiction which in Law is called an Inconvenience The Second Reason he gives is because the Certificate of the Bishop is the higest kind of Trial that is in the Law in this behalf But with due respect to so grave an Author whose failings are rather to be imputed to the time of Popery wherein he was born and writ than to his Person In answer to his Reasons alledged I say first to the Maxim That 't is better to suffer a private mischief than a publick Inconvenience or which is much like it is better one man perish than the
to express his unnaturall Villany both heard and saw by a Travers from the other side of the Tent But was so far from being moved with Compassion that thinking it long till he were dispatched with a most Terrible and cruel Voice he rated the Villaines enured to Blood saying will you never dispatch that I bid you Will you never make an end of this Traitor for whom I have not Rested one night these ten years in quiet which horrible commanding Speeches yet thundring in their Ears those Butchering Mutes threw the Poor Innocent Prince upon the Ground and with the help of the Eunuchs forcibly drawing the knitted Bow-string both ways by the Commandment of a most wicked Father strangled him With like Barbarous Cruelty he shortly after caused Mahomet his Nephew Mustapha his Son to be strangled also This unnatural and strange Murther committed he presently Commanded the Bassa of Amasia Mustapha's Lieutenant to be apprehended and his head in his own presence to be struck off which done he sent for Trihanger yet Ignorant of all that was happened and in sporting wise as if he had done a thing worth Commendations bid him go meet his Brother Mustapha which thing Trihanger with a merry and chearful Countenance hasted to do as one glad of his Brother's Coming But assoon as he came unto the place where he saw his Brother lying dead upon the Ground strangled it is not to be spoken how he was in mind tormented He was scarcely come to the place where this Detestable Murther was Committed when his Father sent unto certain of his Servants to offer unto him all Mustapha's Treasure Horses Servants Jewels Tents and withal the Government of the Province Amasia But Trihanger filled with extream heaviness for the unmerciful Death of his well beloved Brother spake unto them in this sort Ah Wicked and Ungodly Cain Traitor I may not say Father take thou now the Treasure Horses the Servants the Jewels and the Province of Mustapha How come it into thy Wicked Cruel and Savage Breast so ungratiously and contrary to all Humanity I will not say the Reverence of thy own Blood to kill thy Worthy Warlike and Noble Son the Mirrour of Courtesie and Prince of Greatest hope the like of whom the Othoman Family never yet had nor never shall I will therefore my self provide that thou nor none for thee shall never hereafter in such sort shamefully Triumph over such a Poor Wretch as I am And having thus much said Stab'd himself with his own Dagger in the Body whereof he in short time dyed which so soon as it came to the Old Tygers Ears it is hard to say how much he grieved His dead Body was by his Fathers Commandment carryed from Aleppo in Syria to Constantinople and afterwards Honorably buried on the other side of the Haven at Pera. Hence appear the two great benefis the Ottoman Emperors receive from not medling at all with the Priest either in Coronations or Marriages but as to the first rather wear no Crown at all and are content with a Turbant than receive it from them or their Unctions and for their Marriages take what Wife they like in Private without them or their Solemnities For first the sparing a Coronation and likewise the Solemnity of any Marriage which cannot avoid if publick by a Priest the forementioned Excesses of Apparrel Tilting Turneaments Masking Gluttony Riot Drunkenness Dowers and Gifts on the Coronations and Marriages of so great Princes saves him a Vast some of Money to his Private Treasure and what is a greater benefit than the other secures his Supremacy against the Ecclesiastical Mufties and Caliphs who can make no pretence to depose him or take from him or his Successors that Government which they never gave him nor he would receive from them or his Sons from their Unctions or Certificates 12. They proceed to Judgment in the unknown language of Law-Latine That the Romish Bishops and Priests were the first who brought Latine into Churches and compelled the People to Pray to God in any Language they understand not I suppose none will doubt and I cannot think any will oppose but grant these likewise were the first who brought the same Barbarous Latin both into the Spiritual and Temporal Courts they themselves being at first the chief Judges and Clerks of both It will not likewise be denyed that William the Norman was the first who brought in his Barbarous French to this Nation and if we consider no further than that the Authors of these two Languages were Forrein Enemies and Papists I see no Reason any Protestant Divines or Lawyers have except filthy Lucre to be so fond of them as to continue such Exotick Gibberish to be not the least corruptions of our Religion and Justice and snares of Liberty and Propriety and somtimes of Life it self The final causes therfore which induce these uncouth and crabbed Languages and Characters both of Court and Chancery hands have been and are very wicked 1. One cause for which the Roman and likewise the Norman who was the others Ape put the Forms of Judicial proceeding into unknown Languages was to intrap the People Bak. Hist 27. 2. It hath been continued by Judges and Officers of Courts to Monopolize the Trade of Law 3. That Ignoramus and Dulman who had not been at Shool long enough to learn true Latine might write half Words and Dashes which the Country Men might not be able to understand and laugh at Scribe cum Dasho bene est 4. That motions at Bar and demurrers and arguments in Law may multiply and cut out the more Work for Counsel for often times many a Term is spent in Babling about the pedigree of a false Latine word Coin'd by Dulman to derive it as high as a Radix which grew in Babel and when they have done that as great a Task they have to make it agree with his Anglicè whereby all the Cost and many a good Cause is lost because the Clerk could neither Latine nor English right 5. But when there is a Mis-prision or Mis-pleader by reason of a Language the Clerk understands not what a World of money will it cost his poor Client to get an Amendment for him of one or Repleader of the other The best Counsel in the Town must be Retain'd and they must spend at least a twelve month from Term to Term before they can be all heard Pro Con to repeat over all the Acts of Parliament since Magna Charta and all the Rotulo's in such a Hillary and such a Michaelmas Term. And all the Bundles in Ragman-Bag and all the Records in the Tower to the amazement of the Poor Countryman who keeps Twitching them by the Sleeves and Crying out like him in Martial Non de vi neque caede nec veneno Sed lis est mihi de tribus capellis Vicini queror has abesse furto Hoc Judex sibi postulat probari Tu Cannas Mithridaticumque bellum Et
I knew one who used when he had been cited to make Presentment according to the Charge in the Book of Articles to the Bishops Court he used always at his Return from Court to boast that he had presented omine bene and thought his Conscience well discharged whether all was ill or well as long as he presented something in his kind of Latine which he understood not The Evils are likewise considerable enough in keeping up still this old Popish Language in the written Instruments of Bonds Charters and Patents you shall not have a Bond in Latine written by an ordinary Clerk or Scribe in the Countrey but he is apt to mistake sometimes he will write Wiginti for Viginty Quadraginta for Quadringenti Quinquaginta for Quinginti or the like or mistake in the Dashes for if those too be not More Clericorum 't is as bad as false Latine yea to put in true Latine where they use to write it false may be dangerous for you run a hazard either to lose your Money or to fall into the misery of a Common Law Demurrer or a Chancery Suite which costs many times more than the Principal is worth to recover it Then further if the Obligor or Obligee understand not Latine nor can examine the Writing to be Sealed the Scrivener or Clerk may take Money of one part and Cheat the other as he pleaseth Then as for Latine in Charters and Patents they are Penn'd in such obsolete uncouth and Barbarous Terms that the King is many times abused and deceived in his Graunt and the Grauntees likewise and fall often into tedious and wastful Suites about a word which if they had been in English would never have been nor happen'd As bad mischiefs likewise often fall out by the Physician 's using this Popish Language in his Bills as by the Lawyers for the Apothecaries Boys though they have been at School know not all the words in the Dictionary nor can they find there the Barbarous Words and Terms of Latine or Greek Physick nor their Antick and unnecessary Notes or Characters of Weights and Measures So that oftentimes by mistake either of the Ingredient or Dose many a Patient is thereby Poison'd and kill'd and be he Protestant or Papist they find alike that their Implicite Faith in the Doctors Latine did not save but destroy them though they come not to complain after they are dead Again to keep Laws and Judgment in Latine shews that Bishops are not as they falsely pretend Successors to Christ nor to the Apostles for those who had mission from them had the gift of Tongues purposely that they might Preach to every Nation in their own Language as appears Acts 2.7 And they were all amazed and marvelled saying one to another Are not all these which speak Galileans And how bear we every Man in our own Tongue wherein we were born Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judâ—ea and Cappadocia in Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia in Aegypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers of Rome Jews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians we do hear them speak in our Tongues the wonderful works of God And 1 Cor. 14.18 I thank my God I speak with Tongues more than you all Yet in the Church I had rather speak five words with my Vnderstanding than Ten Thousand words in an unknown Tongue To Judg a Nation therefore in an unknown Tongue is Anti-Christian and Anti-Apostolick Though the Turk prohibites Translation of his Alcoran out of the Arabick Tongue into the Turkish Language yet he permits the People to have matters of Justice administred to them in their own Tongue In old Rome the Forms of Actions and Judicial Proceedings were for many Ages kept hid by the Priests in secret amongst the pretended Sacred Rites and Ceremonies of their gods which matters of Religion and Justice were by most of the Ancient Priests kept in a Language unknown to the People under the name of a Sacred Language and only understood by the Priests one of these Books of Forms Cneius Flavius a Clerk to one of the Priests Copied or Translated and Published one to the great Indignation of his Master and of all the rest of the College of Priests But so grateful was the doing the same to the People that they advanced him to great Honours and made him a Curule Aedile only for doing the same In the Councils of Venice the Nobles are bound to use the Venetian Language and when any hath begun to speak Latine they have him in great Dislike clapping their hands and crying out hold hold Govern Ven. 26. In China though the Languages of the Provinces differ yet have they one General Court-Language call'd Quonhoa for their Courts and Writings which is common through all China by means whereof the Magistrate need not in every Province to learn a new Language Though the Persian Empire was very great and contained an Hundred and Twenty Provinces and every Province had a Satrapa or Sheriff to Govern it yet Esther 1.22 Ahasuerus sent his Writs unto all these Sheriffs into every Province according to the writing thereof and unto every People after their own Language The Greeks and Romans had their Proceedings in their own Language And in Germany all Law-Suites are in the German Language as saith Clapmarius de Arcan Dom. P. 119. Constitutio imperii est ne in Camera lites alia Lingua intendantur nisi Germanica Jerem. 5.15 Threatens as the greatest Plague I will bring a Nation upon you from far and after he saith a Nation whose Language thou knowest not neither understandest what they say Their Quiver is an open Sepulchre they are all mighty men and they shall eat up thy Harvest and thy Bread which thy Sons and thy Daughters should eat they shall eat up thy Flocks and thy Herds they shall eat up thy Vines and thy Fig-trees they shall impoverish thy Feneed Cities wherein thou trustedst with the Sword And what do Bishops with their Latine and false Latine and the whole Language of the Beast but the same This is a great Evil yet would be Remedied with a word and would make his Majesties Name Renowned to future Generations that he was the first King of England who vouchsafed to send his Commands to his Subjects in the same Royal Language which he spoke himself They Judg for Fees and not for Salary Bajazet's fury against Judges taking Bribes In the time of Bajazet the Fourth the Turkish Kingdom growing in Greatness grew likewise in Corruption but especially in the Men of Law and Judges of his Courts who made all Justice saleable for Bribes whereat Bajazet grievously inraged commanded divers of the same Judges to be apprehended determining to the Terror of others to have executed them whose dangerous Estate was much pitied by Alis Bassa and other Courtiers they perhas selling their Places to them and thereby forceing them to sell Justice to others yet none of
Title of very good if it had been put in Latine might have been more Complementally express'd Optimo had it not been a Danger lest Maximo would have been added whether the Title of very good given to man is always as great a Fiction as the Titles of Sanctus Clemens and Pius given to Popes may be always doubtful in regard Christ himself in Humility refused the Attribute of Good which is a degree under very good Luke 18.19 And Jesus said unto him Why callest thou me good None is good but One that is God but this Title very good is sometimes certain and not doubtful to be a Fiction when it is attributed to the Leudest Person known the Letter begins After my very hearty commendations to your Lordship This when there is a Mortal Feud between the Chancellor and the Lord must be a Fiction Whereas there hath been of late a Bill of Complaint exhibited into the Court of Chancery against you by H. O. Gent. I have thought good to give you notice thereof rather by these my private Letters than by awarding his Majesties Ordinary Process This if no Bill is come in is as great a Fiction and Falsity in a Private Letter as in a Subpoena and it were far fairer dealing with any Noble-man as well as a Poor man if J. O. first took his Oath of Calumny to his Bill and then made him according to the Precept of Christ an Oblatio Libelli and sent him a Copy of his Bill by his own Letter before he troubled him with a Chancellors Subpoena or Letter and made Use of them only on Probation and declaratory Sentence of Contumacy first obtained and after that obtained far fairer dealing it were with J. O. or any Poor man to grant the same Process of Contumacy that a Noble-man shall have against a Poor man and not put him to the extraordinary cost and incertainty of a Chancellors Private Letter to a Noble-man seeing by Law he ought not to receive any Private Letter from him and such Noble-man ought to be punished by the Civil Law de Ambitu and by the Common Law for Maintenance if he send any and this Justice would prevent Fictions both of Poor and Rich and bring forth Righteousness and Truth The Letter goes on and says Wherefore these are to pray your Lordships to give order for the taking out of the Copy of a Bill and for the putting in of your Answer thereunto according to the usual course in such Cases accustom'd at or before Octab. Hill next ensuing By this Prayer here is a Fiction that the old Episcopal Chancellor had an Imperial Authority over the Commons and only Precarious over the Nobles and was a Fiction if he derived his Authority from the King of the weakness of the Royal Power and of a Dishonour to it as if it was not able to do Justice to the Commons against the Nobles as well as to the Nobles against the Commons if a Sheriff at Common Law should Execute his Praecipe quod reddat and his Praecipe quod faciat whereby he is will'd by the King to command those against whom those Writs are directed by writing his humble Letters when he perceives they concerned Noble-men to pray their Lordships to do what he was appointed to command the Law makes him liable to high punishment and why a Chancellor should not be liable to the same who commits the same offence and having the Kings Process to command in his hand will not or dares not administer Equity by the same equal Process to his Majesties Subjects both Poor and Rich appears no reason or rather an higher Quanto Major qui peccat habetur by how much greater the Power of a Chancellor is extending to a Kingdom than of a Sheriff confined to a single Countrey The next in the Letter is Nothing deubting but that your Lordship will have the care and regard which appertaineth but another man may doubt whether he spake Truth or Fiction He concludes well if not in Hypocrisie I leave your Lordship to the most Merciful keeping of the Almighty from Saint A. the 9th of May 1654. Your very loving Friend J. P. Prolixity caused by Fiction The Bill in Chancery for want of the Oath of Calumny is known to be commonly a Pack of Lies from beginning to the end which is full of infinite Mischiefs and destructive to all Justice and makes it of such immense Prolixity for Lies may be infinite but Truths are few and short that it compels the Answer to be longer than it self for every Lie must be Answer'd as well as the Truth and by reason of such Prolixity neither the Chancellor as he ought to do will take the pains to read nor the Councel to be instructed in either but the Truth like a Grain of Mustard-feed thrown into an heap of Tares is lost and impossible to be found and Sentences and Decrees pass'd both Interloquutory and Final without the least Merit of the Cause Started Stated or Debated The Process of the Chancery is almost as mischievous a Fiction as the Outlawry at Common Law which is the Commission of Rebellion that on non-appearance the most Loyal Subject that is may be Feigned Proclaimed and Imprisoned as a Rebel so the Chancellor needs nothing but a Fiction to elude Magna Charta and the Petition of Right and an Hundred Acts of Parliament more if they were made to that purpose to which the Fiction is point blank contrary and destructive and as inconsistent with all the Fundamental Laws of Liberty and Propriety as Darkness with Light yet is there no necessity of it at all for where it is not necessary to take the Defendants Oath but the Plaintiff can prove his Bill by Witnesses full Justice may be done either by Missio in Possessionem where the Action is Real or where it is to stop Suits by the English Injunction or Scotch Suspension and where the Defendants Oath is necessary either for Discovery or Probation on proof made of the Bill and of the Countumacy and Sentence Declaratory a Capias may be awarded against the Defendant as after a Judgment pass'd Fictions of Latitats If we go to the Common Law Process that is as bad infected with Fictions as the Court of Conscience The Latitat is a meer Lie first it supposeth a Bill of Middlesex to precede where there is no such matter then the Defendant is slander'd Latitare discurrere when he lives as openly as any of his Neighbours and never stirs from his home the suggested Latitations are therefore Lies Then it saith De placito Transgr ' Ac etiam for if the Ac etiam be true of Debt then it is false as to Trespass for there can be no Joindure in Action of Debt and Trespass in the same Writ and so the Kings-Bench ought to have no Jurisdiction of Debt notwithstanding this Fiction except on a Writ of Error which is upon the matter confess'd by Coke himself
Seas alas so many Flames can quench The Romish Tyrant on Tarpeia smil'd To see the Brittish Priests thus both beguil'd When they have sent each other unto Hell Saith he by mutual wounds hark what I tell Lest they want Fire should in the Pit profound I will them both alive burn above ground Behold the Jest the peeping Mouse and Frog With Bulrush fighting are on Hill and Bog Like Kite mean while hid in a Cloudy Day With soft mov'd Wings I 'le soar about my Prey So I at length the Croaking Frog shall gull And Mouse ridiculous in pieces pull I shall proceed next to the Form and whole Nature of Excommunication and the further manifold mischiefs it brings to all Protestant-Churches which shews Bishops who use it are neither sit Judges of Marriage nor of any thing else The Form of the Jewish Excommunication By Decree of the Cities and Command of the Saints We Anathematize and Adjure Exterminate Excommunicate Curse and Execrate by the Will of God and the Church by the Book of this Law by the Six Hundred and Thirteen Precepts written in the same by the Anathema wherein Joshua Anathematized Jericho by the Curse wherewith Elisha Cursed the Children and by the Curse wherewith he Cursed Gehazi his Boy and by the Excommunication wherewith Baruch Excommunicated Merath and by the Excommunication which the men of the great Synagogue use and by the Excommunication which Rabbi Jehuda the Son of Rabbi Jehezkiel used in this matter and by all the Anathemata's Imprecations Burnings Excommunications and Exterminations which have been from the time of our Master Moses and since by the name of Acetheriel Jah Lord of Hosts by the name of Michael the Great Prince by the name of Mittraton whose name is as the name of his Master by the name Sandalipon who Binds the Bindings by his Lord by the name of the name of Forty-Two Letters by the name of him who appeared to Moses in the Bush by the name by which Moses divided the Red-Sea by the name of Four Letters by the Writing which is Writon the Tables by the name of the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel sitting on the Cherubin by the name of the Sphaeres and Circles and the Holy living Creatures and Ministring Angels by the name of all the Angels which Minister to the Supreme God let every Israelite and Israelitess wittingly or willing violating any of the things denounced to be observed be Cursed to the God of Israel sitting on the Cherubims let him be Accursed by the Name Glorious and Bright which the High-Priest expresseth in the Day of Expiations let him be Cursed by Heaven and Earth let him be Accursed by the Omnipotent God let him be Accursed of Michael the Great Prince let him be Accursed of Mittraton whose name is as the name of his Master let him be Accursed as Acetheriel Jah Lord of Hosts let him be Accursed of the Seraphim and the Orbes and Holy living Creatures and Angels who Minister before the Supreme God in Holiness and Cleanness If he was born in the Month Nisan which the Angel called Vriel as Prince of the Rank under which he is Governs let him be Accursed of him and all his Rank and if he was born in the Month Jier which the Angel called Trephaniel as Prince of the Rank under which he is Governs let him be Accursed of him and all his Rank and if he is born under the Month Sivan c. this Cursing runs through every Month one after another in the same words Then follows Let him be Accursed of the Seven Angels set over the Seven Days of the Week and of all their Ranks and helping Powers let him be Accursed of the Four Angels set over the Four Quarters of the Year and of all their Ranks and helping Powers let him be Accursed of the Seven Palaces let him be Accursed of the Princes of the Law in the name of the Crown and in the name of the Seal let him be Accursed of the Great God strong and bright let their be Confusion of his Seed let him fall with a swift Ruin let the God the God of the Spirits of all Flesh destroy and cast him away let the God the God of the Spirits of all Flesh subdue him let the God the God of the Spirits of all Flesh overthrow him let the God the God of the Spirits of all Flesh keep him down let the Wrath of the Lord and a violent Whirlwind fall on the head of the Wicked let the Angel of Destruction fall upon him let him be Accursed in all things to which he sets himself let his Soul depart in Terror let him die of the Quinsey let not his Breath go out nor return with the Consumption Fever Burning Drought let him be smitten with the Sword with pining away with the Jaundice nor before his Destruction be freed from them let his Sword enter into his heart and let his Bow be broken let him be as Dust before the Wind and let the Angel of the Lord scatter him let his way be Darkness and Slipperiness and the Angel of the Lord persecute him let unlooked-for Desolation come upon him and let the Net which he hath hid take him let them Expell him from the Light into Darkness and from the habitual World they shall Banish him Tribulation and Straights shall terrifie him his Eyes shall see his own Destruction and he shall drink the Wrath of the Almighty let him put on Cursings as a Garment let him devour the strength of his Skin also God shall scatter him for ever and shall root him out of his Tabernacle The Lord will not rest to forgive him but the Wrath of the Lord and his Jealousie shall smoak against that man and all the Curses which are written in the Book of this Law shall lie upon him for Evil out of all the Tribes of Israel according to all the Curses of the Covenant which are written in the Law But you who adhere to the Lord your God bless you this Day he who blessed Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses and Aaron David and Solomon and the Prophets of Israel and those who amongst the Nations are Holy bless this Holy Congregation and all other Holy Congregations Except only He who shâ—ll break this Curse God of his mercy keep them and make them safe and take them out of all trouble and misery and Prolong their Days and their Years and send his Blessing and a prosperous Wind to the Work of their Hands and let Him Revenge them speedily with all other Israelites and so let his Will and Decree be Amen Seld. de Jur. Nat. Gent. Juxt Discip Ebr. lib. 4. Cap. 7.527 The Form of the Greek Excommunication against Thieves If they Restore not to him that which is his own and possess him peaceably of it but suffer him to remain Injured and Damnified Let him be Separate from the Lord God Creator and be Accursed and Unpardoned and undissolvable after
him by a Candiot Caloire call'd Sophronio a Preacher in Smyrna of great Repute and Learning That a certain Person for some Misdemeanours committed in the Morea fled to the Isle of Milo and being Excommunicated died In the mean time the Relations of the Deceased were much afflicted and Anxious for the sad Estate of their Dear Friend whilst the Peasants and Islanders were every Night affrighted and disturbed with strange and unusual Apparitions which they immediately concluded arose from the Grave of the accursed Excommunicate which according to their Custom they immediately open'd and therein found the Body uncorrupted Ruddy and the Veins replete with Blood the Costin was furnished with Grapes Apple and Nuts and such Fruit as the Season afforded whereupon Consultation being made the Caloires Resolved to make Use of the common Remedy in those Cases which was to Cut and Dismember the Body into several Parts and to boil it in Wine as the approved means to dislodg the Evil Spirit and dispose the Body to a dissolution But the Friends of the Deceased being willing and desirous that the Corps should rest in Peace and some ease given to the Departed Soul obtained a Reprieve from the Clergy and hopes that for a Sum of Money they being Persons of a competent Estate a Release might be purchased of this Excommunication under the hand of the Patriarch in this manner the Corps were for a while freed from dissection and Letters thereupon sent to Constantinople with this Direction That in case the Patriarch should condescend to take off the Excommunication that the Day Hour and Minute that he Signed the Pardon should be inserted in the Date And now the Corps were taken into the Church the Countrey People not being willing they should remain the Field and Prayers and Masses daily said for its Dissolution and Pardon of the Offender when one Day after many Prayers Supplications and Offerings as this Saphronio attested with many Protestations and whilst he himself was performing Divine Service on a sudden was heard a rumbling noise in the Cossin of the Dead Party to the Fear and Astonishment of all Persons there present which when they had open'd they found the Body Consumed and Dissolved as far into its first Principles of Earth as if it had been Seven Years Buried the Hour and Minute of this Dissolution was immediately Noted and precisely Observed which being compared with the Date of the Patriarch's Release when it was Signed at Constantinople it was found exactly to agree with the Moment in which the Body returned to its Ashes And he after saith Such is the much-tobe-Lamented Poverty of the Greek Church that they are not only forced to sell Excommunications but the very Sacraments and to expose the most Reverend and Mysterious Offices of Religion unto Sale for the maintenance and Support of the Priest-hood The same Author writing concerning the Armenian Church page 439. saith That Excommunication is as frequent amongst them as the Greeks by the Abuse of which the Priest procures the most considerable part of their Gains nor is any Ecclesiastical Right performed nor a Benefice confer'd without Money And p. 439. he saith That amongst the Armenians the Penance on which Excommunication or Absolution is to follow being once imposed by the Priest no man can Remit no not the Bishop or Patriarch himself 1. Hence is to be Observed That the only Final Causes why the Greek Armenian Romish and British Popes agree to Exercise Excommunication Penance and Absolution and to set Heaven and Hell to Sale for Commutation-Money are only Covetousness and Ambition and thereby to Lord it more imperiously over the Consciences Lives Liberties and Propriety of their Superstitious Adorers than any Temporal Emperor is able to do over his Vassals 2. That 't is the Prelate only pockets all the Money in the Greek Romish Ethiopian Muscovitish Russe and British Churches and starves the inferior Clergy and the Parochial Priest in the Arminian and that the Penance and Excommunication of the Parochial Priests must probably be heavier and his Absolution sold dearer than the Pope's or Prelat's because the remoteness of the one and the greatness of his Territory and that he must thereby leave all to Under-Officers and cannot Act in Person cause his Inquisitions not to be so strict but multitudes will find easie Evasions from them whereas the Parochial Priest having the narrow Bounds of his Parish always under his Eye and within his reach will not only swallow every Camel but strain at every Gnat which comes within his verge for the advantage of his Petty Dominion and Gains 3. That the Greek Popes are notwithstanding but Poor and the Romish Rich because the Grand Seignior being not Superstitious nor his Empresses nor fearing such counterfeit Fulminations as Excommunications and his Mufti 's or Arch-Bishops being only Durante Beneplacito and his Parish-Priests Elected by the People without Consecration or Ordination and Independent one of another neither the Greek Popes Patriarchs Bishops nor Priests nor his-own dare Excommunicate him whereas the Christian both Eastern and Western Emperors their Empresses Children and People having been permitted to be perpetually Educated by the Popes in Blindness and Superstition he hath them upon the matter in the condition of Sampson and Polyphemus with their Eyes pull'd out and makes them grind for him as he pleases or with his Ecommunications sends them packing as they in their Ignorance think to Hell or Purgatory which makes most for his Gains and Profit whereby he hath accumulated infinite Riches 4. The Effects of Excommunication on the Bodies of Dead men is either Witchcraft or a Cheat Witchcraft is possible to be sometimes not always as may easily be proved from the Raising of Samuel by the Witch of Endor and an Hundred Histories more related by Authors of unquestionable Credit And as the Devil may sometimes be permitted to abuse the Bodies of the best men when Living as he did Job's and what is the highest Example Christ himself carrying him to the Pinacle of the Temple so he may when they are Dead I shall Instance one only Example further in the Primitive times mention'd by Cornelius Agrippa de occult Philos lib. 3. cap. 41. where he Relates out of the Cretensian History That certain Ghosts which they call'd Catechanae were wont to return back to their Bodies and go into their Wives and lie with them for the Avoiding of which and that they might not annoy their Wives any more it was provided by their Common Law That the Hearts of them who did Arise should be thrust through with an Awle and their whole Carcasses be burnt to Ashes These without Doubt are wonderful things and scarce credible did not those Laws themselves and ancient Histories witness them The frequent practice likewise of Necromancers by their wicked Art to call the Devil into a Dead Body and take Responses from him confirm what hath been said And it may be likewise a Cheat for it
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
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
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