6. Some of the parliament were discontented that they wanted places at court which others had got; but when they had them once, then they were quiet. Just as at a christening, some that get no sugar-plums, when the rest have, mutter and grumble; presently the wench comes again with her basket of sugar-plums, and then they catch and scramble, and when they have got them, you hear no more of them.

CXIII.

PRÆMUNIRE.

THERE can be no præmunire. A præmunire (so called 10 from the word præmunire facias) was when a man laid an action in an ecclesiastical court, for which he could have remedy in any of the king's courts; that is, in the courts of common law; by reason the ecclesiastical courts before Henry the 8th were subordinate to the pope, and so it was

1. 10. There can be no præmunire] This statement, as reported, is wider than the facts warrant; and as the rest of the chapter shows, is wider than Selden meant it to be. He is probably arguing against Coke's opinion that a suitor in an ecclesiastical court might still incur the penalties of a præmunire. The first Statute of Præmunire, that of 27 Edward III (A. D. 1353), headed 'Statutum contra adnullatores judiciorum curiae Regis,' enacts that all subjects suing in a foreign court for matters cognizable in the King's court, or questioning elsewhere the judgments of the King's court, shall have warning to answer for such contempt, and on non-appearance shall be outlawed, forfeit their land and goods and be imprisoned. This Act was repeated in more stringent form by 38 Edward III (1363-4), but the offence against which the two Acts were directed was substantially the same, and it was one which, as Selden points out, had become impossible in his time. But a præmunire there still was, for several other named offences, to which the old penalties of a præmunire had been attached in express words. See Blackstone's Comm. Bk. IV. ch. viii.

contra coronam et dignitatem regis; but now the ecclesiastical courts are equally subordinate to the king. Therefore it cannot be contra coronam et dignitatem regis, and so no præmunire.

CXIV.

PREROGATIVE.

I. PREROGATIVE is something that can be told what it is, not something that has no name. Just as you see the archbishop has his prerogative court, but we know what is done in that court. So the king's prerogative is not his Io will, or what divines make it, a power to do what he lists.

2. The king's prerogative; that is, the king's law. For example, if you ask if a patron may present to a living after six months by law? I answer, No. If you ask whether the king may? I answer he may by his prerogative; that is, by the law that concerns him in that case.

CXV.

PRESBYTERY.

I. THEY that would bring in a new government, would very fain persuade us they meet it in antiquity; thus they

1. 13. If you ask whether the king may &c.] In a case decided 2 James I, it was held that the King, as to the advowson, hath no greater privilege than another person. This judgment was reversed two years afterwards on the ground that the King had special privilege. Croke, Reports, vol. ii. pp. 54, 123.

This later decision seems to be based on the general principle that 'in the King can be no negligence or laches, and therefore no delay will bar his right. Nullum tempus occurrit regi has been the standing maxim upon all occasions.' Blackstone, Comm. Bk. I. ch. vii.

interpret presbyters, when they meet the word in the fathers. Other professions likewise pretend to antiquity. The alchymist will find his art in Virgil's aureus ramus, and he that delights in optics, will find them in Tacitus. When Cæsar came into England they would persuade us they had perspective glasses, by which he could discover what they were doing upon the land; because it is said, positis speculis: the meaning is, his watch or his sentinel discovered this and this unto him.

1. 3. Virgil's aureus ramus] Aeneid, vi. 136–148.

Robertus Vallensis, in his De Veritate et Antiquitate Artis Chemicae (Paris, 1561, the book is not paged), quotes this passage, together with some others from Virgil, as if it proved or illustrated something in his alchemical art, but he gives no precise interpretation to it.

Borrichius, writing a little before Selden's day, says of the lines: 'Haec de materiâ chemici magisterii fudisse cumaeam vatem opinio est variorum, quos inter Robertus Vallensis, Glauberus, aliique; nec inficiendum sub illo fabulae involucro arcanum sensum delitescere, forsan Virgilio ipsi, qui ex alio haec mutuatus est, incognitum.' The golden bough reminds him of a passage in Acosta (Hist. Nat. lib. iv. cap. 1), in which the veins of metal are compared to the boughs of plants, in their form and in the manner of their growth. De Ortu et Progressu Chemicae, p. 101.

Wedel, a later writer, mentions and approves the alchemical interpretation of the lines: 'Majori fide et applausu ad se nos vocant chimicorum filii, qui suum faciunt hunc locum. Hos inter praecipuus Robertus Wallensis . . . . quem secuti hinc non pauci alii. Instar omnium sit Borrichius, chimicae decus summum.' See Georgii Wolffgangi Wedelii propempticum inaugurale de aureo ramo Virgilii.

1. 5. When Cæsar came into England &c.] See 'Possunt sic figurari perspicua ut longissime posita appareant propinquissima . . . . Sic enim aestimatur Julius Caesar super littus maris in Galliis, deprehendisse per ingentia specula dispositionem et situm castrorum et civitatum Britanniae majoris.' R. Bacon, Epistola de secretis operibus artis et naturae, cap. 5, Brewer's edition of Bacon's Opera inedita. And again: 'Sic enim Julius Caesar, quando voluit Angliam expugnare, repertur maxima specula erexisse, ut a Gallicano littore dispositionem civitatum et castrorum Angliae praevideret.' R. Bacon, Opus Majus, pars v. p. 357.

1. 8. positis speculis] There is some difficulty about these words. As the text stands, Selden quotes them as having been misinterpreted

2. Presbyters have the greatest power of any clergy in the world, and gull the laity most: for example, admit there be twelve laymen to six presbyters, the six shall govern the rest as they please. First, because they are constant, and the others come in like churchwardens in their turns, which is a huge advantage. Men will give way to those that have been there before them. Next, the laymen have other professions to follow; the presbyters make it their sole business; and besides too, they learn 10 and study the art of persuading; some of Geneva have confessed as much.

3. The presbyter, with his elders about him, is like a young tree fenced about with three or four stakes; the stakes defend it, and hold it up; but the tree only prospers and flourishes; it may be some willow-stake may bear a leaf or two, but it comes to nothing. Lay-elders are stakes, the presbyter the tree that flourishes.

4. When the queries were sent to the assembly con

by Roger Bacon, or by some other writer, and he then adds what he considers to be their true sense. But the words do not occur in any history of Caesar's invasion that I have seen, and I have searched for them with some care. Nor do they seem to admit of the sense which Selden is reported as putting upon them. I think it likely that there has been some error in the report, and that the words in question are a free rendering of what Roger Bacon himself says, and that the rest of the clause ought to appear as Selden's own statement of the real facts of the case, not as his interpretation of what 'positis speculis'

means.

1. 18. When the queries were sent &c.] The power of the Presbytery to pass sentence of excommunication had been limited by the final appeal which the Parliament allowed to a body of lay commissioners of its own appointment. The Westminster Assembly of Divines petitioned against this appeal, and claimed jure divino a right to uncontrolled spiritual jurisdiction. The Parliament in reply sent them a number of very searching queries, drawn up by a Committee of the House, touching the point of jus divinum, and demanding exact scriptural proofs for it (see Excursus E). The Assembly, however, had no scriptural proofs ready, and they were in a great fright to know what to do. They held a consultation, they proclaimed a fast,

cerning the jus divinum of presbytery, their asking time to answer them, was a satire upon themselves. For if it were to be seen in the text, they might quickly turn to the place and shew us it. Their delaying to answer makes us think there's no such thing there. They do just as you have seen a fellow do at a tavern reckoning, when he should come to pay his share; he puts his hands into his pockets, and keeps a grabling and a fumbling and shaking, at last tells you he has left his money at home; when all the company knew at first he had no money there; for every 10 man can quickly find his own money.

CXVI.

PRIESTS OF ROME.

I. THE reason of the statute against priests, was this; in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth, there was a statute and appointed committees of their own body to prepare an answer. When the questions came before the committees, first the Independents withdrew, then the Erastians entered their dissent from the answer proposed to question 1, and at length a form of words was agreed upon by a majority vote. The rest of the questions were discussed from May till late in July, but the answers, if any, were never sent to Parliament, and the matter practically dropped, as far as the Assembly had to do with it. Neal, Hist. of Puritans, iii. 253 and 278. See Appendix, Excursus E.

1. 14. in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth &c.] The statutes, of which Selden speaks, strengthen and grow precise as they proceed. By 1 Elizabeth, ch. 1, sec. 27, penalties are fixed on those who maintain or depend or endeavour to advance any foreign authority in the Queen's dominions. To do this is made high treason on the third offence. Then, 5 Elizabeth, ch. 1, sec. 2 enacts more particularly that any person maintaining the authority of the Bishop of Rome, in any part of the Queen's dominions, shall come under the pains, &c., of the statute of provisions and præmunire; and shall on the second offence (secs. 10 and 11) be guilty of high treason. Next, 13 Elizabeth, ch. 2 declares that, notwithstanding the above statute, divers