THE Reverse or Back-face OF THE English JANUS . TO-WIT , All that is met with in STORY Concerning the COMMON AND STATUTE-LAW OF English Britanny , From the first MEMOIRS of the two NATIONS , to the Decease of King HENRY II. set down and tackt together succinctly by way of Narrative . Designed , Devoted and Dedicated to the most Illustrious the EARL of SALISBURY .

Written in Latin by JOHN SELDEN of Salvinton , Student of the Inner-Temple in LONDON ; and Rendred into English by REDMAN WESTCOT , Gent.

London , Printed for Thomas Basset , and Richard Chiswell . MDCLXXXII .

AND as it were with consecrated Flowr , and crackling grain of Salt , I offer up in Sacrifice . I am not in condition to do it with a costly Victim , or a full Censer . GREAT SIR , deign with favour to receive these scraps of Collection ; relating intirely , what they are , and as far as the present Age may be supposed to be concerned in ancient Stories and Customes , to the English-British State and Government ; and so far forth to Your most Honoured Name . Which Name of Yours , whilest I , one of the lowermost Bench , do with dazzled eye-sight look upon ( most Noble Lord , and great Support of your Country ) I devoutly lay down Upon its ALTAR This small Earnest and Pledge of my Obedience and Duty .

THOU canst not be such a Stranger to thy own Countrey , as to need my commendation of the Learned , Worthy and Famous AUTHOR of these following Sheets ; or that I should tell thee , what a Scholar , a Philologer , a Humanist , a Linguist , a Lawyer , a Critick , an Antiquary , and ( which proves him an absolute Master of all these and many other Knowledges ) what a Writer , the Great SELDEN was . Since it is liberally acknowledged by every body , that knows any thing ( not only at home , but abroad also among Foreigners ) that Europe seldom hath brought forth His Fellow for exquisite Endowments of Nature , Attainments of Study , and Accomplishments of Ingenuity , Sagacity and Industry . And indeed , to save me the labour of saying any more concerning this Non-pareil in all kinds of Learning , His own WORKS , which are now under a Review , and will e're long be made Publick in several Volumes , will sufficiently speak his Character , and be a more prevailing Argument to indear Him to thy good Opinion and firm Acquaintance , than mine or any other Words can .

My business now is only to give thee some Account of the Author's design in this little Treatise , and of those measures I took in Translating Him , that is , in restoring him to his own Native Language ; though his great Genius had made the Latin and several other Tongues , as natural and familiar to Himself , as the English was .

To speak first of the Author , I do take this Piece to have been one of his first Essays , if not the very first ; wherein he launched into the World , and did not so much try the Judgement , as deservedly gain the Approbation of the Learned : which was certainly one Reason , why , though the whole matter of the Book be of an English Complexion and Concern , yet he thought fit to put it forth in a Latin dress . That this was his first Specimen , or at least one of the first , I gather from the time of his Writing it , viz. in the Six and Twentieth year of his Age ; when I suppose he was not of any very long standing in the Temple ; I mean , in all likelihood , whilst he was on this side the Bar. For having fraught himself with all kind of Learning , which the University could afford him ( which could be , we must imagine , no small time neither ; as I may be allowed to guess from that passage of his in this Book , where he so affectionately recognizeth his Duty and Gratitude to his dear Mother OXFORD ; who , if she had no other Antiquity to boast of , is and ever will be Famous for This Her Scholar , our great Antiquary ; who hath also such a Monument to be seen in her publick Library , as will make her Glory and his Memory ever to flourish ) I say , having after some competent time taken leave of Academical Institutions , and being now engaged into the Study of Law , he thought he could not do his Profession a better service , than by looking back into former times , and making a faithful Collection of what might be Pertinent and Useful , to bring down , along through all Changes and Vicissitudes of State , the Light and Strength , the Evidence and Reputation of old Institutes and Precedents to our present Establishments under our Gracious and Happy Monarchy . May It , as it is in its Constitution to the English people Gracious ; so be ever in its Success to It self , and consequently to Us all , Happy ! Here then thou wilt find the Rights of Government through all Ages , so far as our Histories will help us ; Here thou wilt see , from the first , our KING setled in his just Power , even in his Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction against the Papal Usurpation ; one shrewd Instance whereof is , the forbidding Appeals to the Pope , at such a time when the Popish Religion was at its Zenith in this Island ; that is , when People in all probability were most Ignorant . Here thou wilt easily be brought to acknowledge the Antiquity and Usefulness of Parliaments ( though under other Names till after the Conquest ) when all the Barons , that is , as that Title did at first import , all Lords of Mannors , all Men of Estate assembled together for the determination of publick Affairs : which Usage , because it produced too numerous and cumbersome a confluence , was afterwards for better convenience retrenched into a popular Election by the Kings Writ to chuse some of the Chiefest to act for all the rest . And sure enough , if we in Duty keep up the Royal Prerogative , and our Kings , as ever they have done , and ever , I hope , will , in Grace and Clemency oblige the Peoples Consent in their Representatives ; we shall alwayes have such Laws , such a Government , such a Correspondence betwixt Prince and Subjects , as must ( according to the Rules of Humane Prudence , adding our Piety to it ) make this Kingdom of Great Britanny ( maugre the malice of the Devil and his Agents whatever , Jesuits or Fanaticks ) a flourishing and impregnable Kingdom .

Having said this in General of the Author's design , I shall not descend to Particulars , which I leave to thy self , R●ader , to find out , in the perusal , that may be of good Use and great Consequence to the Publick ; but fearing , thou maist think I am so much taken up with the Author , that I have forgot My self , I have two or three words to speak of that sorry subject , before I leave thee .

As to the Translator ; I confess , it is no great credit for any one to appear in that Figure ; a Remark , which I have learn't from one , who hath translated another excellent Piece of this Noble Author , ( Noble I call him , sith Nobility is rais'd by Parts and Merits , no less than continued by Birth and Descent ) it was his Mare Clausum , wherein he , I spoke of , hath acquitted himself very well , abating for his Villanous Dedication to the RUMP-Parliament , which was then setting up for a Republick ; in which Dedication of his , he hath vilely and like himself ( I speak in Charity , as to his Interest , I mean , not his Judgement or Conscience at least , if there were any ) aspersed the Royal Family with Weakness and Collusion , to have lower'd the British Renown .

I am bid by Him , who puts this into thy hands , to tell thee , that when he was embark'd into this Employ ; whatever it was , upon the coasting of it over , he was surprized to find , he had undertaken such a difficult and hazardous Voyage , and did presently conclude , That none but a Selden ( that is , a Person of omnifarious Reading ) was fit to be a Selden's Interpreter . For no other person , but one so qualified , can be Master of his Sense , Master of his Expression . His ordinary Style , where he delivers himself plainest , is as to the Matter of it , so full of Historical and Poetical Allusions and as to the Method ( and hath that of Crabbed in it besides ) so Intricate and Perplex , that he seems , even where he pretends to Teach and Instruct , to have intended only to Amuse and Confound the Reader . In very deed , it is such a Style , as became a Learned Antiquary , which is to be Antique and Oracular ; that one would think , the very Paper , he wrote upon , was made of the Sibyll's old-worn Sheets , and that his meaning could not be fisht out without the assistance of a Delian Diver . However the Translator ( though so much Inferiour to the Undertaking , as to be almost Unacquainted with some considerable parts of it ) did presume ( whether rightly or no , must be left to thy judgement ) that he was not utterly unfurnished with those Skills and Helps , which might make the Work Intelligible and Acceptable even to Plebeians . For though it was at first designed by the Excellent Author in his Latin for such as were meerly Lawyers and Scholars ( they must be both , that mean to understand it as he wrote it ) yet now it being done into English , it was to be calculated to the Meridian of common Capacities and vulgar Understandings . Which end he hath , he hopes , in some good measure answered ; and in order to which end , he hath , to supply the defects of his Translation , at the end of the Book subjoyned some Annotations , which may serve partly to clear the Author's meaning , and partly to vindicate himself in the Interpretation . He did think once to have affixt those Annotations to the places they belong to ; but upon second and better thoughts , he consider'd , that the Authors Quotations would be enow of themselves to charge the Margin with , and a further superfoetation would but cloy and surbate the Reader ; though in the body of the Work , there are up and down many Explanations inserted , to excuse him from the trouble of having recourse to those Notes , which are added out of pure necessity , and not from any vanity of Ostentation , since the whole , if it had its due , might seem to require a perpetual Comment. In the main , which is enough for a Translator , be his Author what he will , he doth assure thee , that the meanest Subject of England may now read one of her greatest Champions and Writers ( for Learned Pens sometimes do as good and as great service as Valiant Swords do ) so understandingly , that he may edifie and learn , what duty and deference he ought to have for the Best of Governments .

And now , Reader , excuse me in a Digression , and do not impute it as a Levity to me , that I follow my Grave Author . It is my Duty so to do ; it is my Happiness , if I can : He doth not despair , now he appears in English , to have Female-Readers too , to court him so far at least as to peruse his Translation , who hath so highly courted them with Noble Caresses in that Chapter , wherein he hath so learnedly pleaded the Excellencies and Rights of that Angelical Sex , ( if Angels have any Sex ) to the abashment and overthrow of the Salick Law . To what purpose did the Author write so much in their Commendation , if they were not to know it ? which , if the poor Translator hath any Obligations upon the Sex , he hopes they will own this as an Addition : not to mention that other Chapter of his , where , like a Gentleman and a Lawyer both , he maintains that freedom peculiar to our English Ladies , and which with Lawyers leave , I may call The Courtesie of England , in receiving of Salutes , against the censure of Rudeness on the one hand , and the suspicion of Wantonness on the other . Though I must confess also , that some of his Citations in that defence , are so free , that I thought fit rather to leave them as I found them , than by putting them into English , to expose the Modesty of the Sex .

I have no more to say , Reader , but to beg thy Excuse , for any thing , wherein I may appear to have come short of the Weighty and Abstruse Senses of our Great and Worthy Author , and that I may detain thee no longer from his Conversation , to bid thee Farewell .

AND that the Tutelar or Guardian of my threshold may not entertain thee with unlucky or ill-boding terms , he doth freely be speak thee Health and Greeting , whoever thou art , Dear Reader . Moreover , he is in the humour to declare both the Occasion of drawing the first Furrow of this Enterprize , and also the Model and Frame of the whole Work , what it is , finished and compleated . It is a long while ago , considering how young a man I am , since from the first I have made it my hearty wish , that the ancient Original and Procedure of our Civil Law might more fairly and clearly be made out ; as far , I mean , as the thing will bear , and as what store we have of publick Records affords assistance . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , For several men with several things are pleas'd , as said Archilochus of old ; and I do own for my self , what Seneca the Declaimer saith , Senec. controv . that I take pleasure in going back to Studies of Antiquity , and in looking behind me to our Grand-sires better times . Which , to say truth , they who do too much , slight , Lucret. l. 1. Ardua dum m●tuunt , amittunt ver● viai . that is , Whilst l●fty passes they do fear , through sloth They lose the certain tracks and paths of troth And , so may the Muses alway favour me , they are such things as are — Anteiqua , sepolta , vetusta , Eno. Annal. l. 7. Quai faciunt mores veterésque novosque tenentem Moltarum veterum Legum , Divômque Hominumque Prudentem . — as saith another old Latin Poet ; that is , such stori●● as are Antique , buried in rubbish , old and musty , Which make one verst in customs old and new , And of Laws , Gods and Men giving a view , Render the careful Student skill'd and trusty . Some spare hours have been spent by me in reading over Historians , Chronologers , Antiquaries , Foreigners and our own Countrey-men , those of Ancient date and the more polite of the Modern sort : those especially who seem'd to make out the quickest course to that Goal and design I spoke of . I have carefully cull'd out whatsoever I met with , that lookt like the Orders and Decisions of Praetors or Lord Chief Justices , and whatsoever concerns the Civil or Prophane Law . ( Prophane I call that , which is not held by the Religion of the Church ; as Sextus Pompeius hath taught me . ) I did judge that there were a great many things in those Writers worth the knowing , and which might deserve to be digested into a kind of Volume according to order of Chronology , I did in the first place advise , and took that special order with my self , that as to this undertaking , I might with the greater ease have my Attendants ready at hand to wait upon my Studies . I went about to give s●me closure and coment , such as it is , ( i. e. some method and connexion ) to the scattered and disjointed bulk , and I brought it to a conclusion ; and assoon as it came into my mind to publish it , I endeavoured according to that meanness , which it appears in , to finish it ( that I may make use of a Mathematick term ) with its Complement . I have set the model and frame upon a sure account ( not upon mine own credit neither , who am too apt to take on trust things suspected ) and in a compendious way : I have writ my self compendiously and succinctly ; I have transcribed out of others faithfully . I do on set purpose vouch the credit , I go upon , to be none of mine , but the Authors , I have taken out of , that I may not be accused of false dealing by unskilful or careless Readers . I have applyed my self not only to the meaning of the Writers , or to their historical account , but even to the very words and syllables , which they spoke , and have inserted them printed in a different character ; those , I confess , unless it be from them of the middle age , many times sufficiently barbarous , that miserably want polishing , such as Criti●ks cannot away with , and do very well agree with the Records and Reports of Law , which we converse with . However I would not have thee disdain in the mean time brimful and wholsome draughts of liquor , because the Bowl was not made in a Potters shop of Colias a place in Athens , or in cold Winter to slight a garment which is not made of Attick Wooll ; Plutar. de audiènde . as Plutarch hath admonished the hearers of Philosophy . Let young Ladies speak finically with their golden Flower-amours , and let them , who have store and leave at once , court the graces of words and beauties of expression . 'T is true , the care of exact speaking , is a thing befits the Muses , yet how the most abstruse Mysteries even of the highest Urania , of Divinity it self , are laid open without it , the Thomists , the Scotists , and what other Sects and Parties of School-men there are , know well enough . And there are some others also , that think they know ; I mean the inquirers into Heavenly Calculations ( Astrologers ) and the Weather-wise-men ( Almanack-makers ) who in good deed for the most part rely too much upon the trifling stories of their Masters . Now they , and not without good reason , have preferred the Arab Writers barbarously translated , and slovenly Bonatus before Julius Firmicus and modern Pontanus , as spruce as they are . These two may rather be termed Grammarians , than Astrologers . Nor do Aristotle's crabbed Lectures of natural Philosophy discourage Interpreters or procure to themselves any discredit , by reason of the affected obscurity of speech , they are delivered in : and as to neatness of Poetry , Apollo himself hath been out-done by Sappho , Homer , Hesiod . Plutar. lib. orac . Pyt● . Though the Matter doth often surpass the Workmanship ; yet who is there is so rigid or so fond a Censurer , as to disparage and debase the Matter upon the account of the Workmanship ? Which I would not have be said only of those passages , which I have brought into this Piece out of those fore-mentioned Authors , but also of the whole Body of our Common-Law . I have , I hope , not unluckily begun with the very first Inhabitants of this Isle , as far as we can come to the knowledge of them . Those Authors , whom I have followed in the original of Story , I have , as it was meet , set down and remark'd , adding the Judgement and Censure of the Learned . Afterward , besides Caesar and Tacitus there are but few that afford us any help , and that but in few things too . For the name of Brittany was known but of late to the Greeks , but of late to the Romans ; and the Britans were truly for a long while divided from all the world besides . But among Foreigners the latter Ages have enquired after them . I speak of Strabo , Pliny , Ptolomy , others ; and a certain Writer of Asia , Marcianus Heracleotes , not y●t , that I know of , turned into Latin , saith thus , Albion the Brittish Isle hath in it Thirty Three Nations , Marcian . Heracleot . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . Fifty Nine remarkable Cities ; and then he subjoyns other things concerning the number of Rivers , Promontories , Havens and Creeks or Bays . I have stretched out this Piece to the death of King Henry the Son of Mawd the Empress by Jeoffrey the Count of Angers in France . In whose time , or near thereabout , are the first beginnings of our Law , as our Lawyers now account . There come in by the way Richard called Coeur de Lion and King John ; but there is scarce any thing in that interim to our purpose . I have on purpose passed by Mr. Lambard's Archaeonomia ( or Antiquites of Law ) without medling with it at all , only when some obvious accasion did sometimes suggest it for the explaining of what is set down by us . I have divided the whole into two Books ; the first closes with the Saxons ; the second begins with the Norman Conquest , the most famous Aera or Date of the English Government in the reckonings of time .

But however to refer the original of our English Laws to that Conquest ( as some make bold to do ) is a huge mistake ; forasmuch as they are of a far more ancient Date .

Philip. Honor . Thes. politic . Lat. & Ital.

Machiavell in Principe & comment . ad Liv. l. 1. c. 25. & 26.

Cujacius . Al●er . Gentil . l. 3. c. 11. de jure bell .