as you would be done to. Neither of them must do as private men, but the judge must do by him as they have publicly agreed; that is, both judge and prisoner have consented to a law, that if either of them steal they shall be hanged.

XXXVIII.

EVIL SPEAKING.

I. HE that speaks ill of another, commonly, before he is aware, makes himself such a one as he speaks against; for if he had civility or breeding, he would forbear such kind. 10 of language.

2. A gallant man is above ill words. An example we have in the old lord of Salisbury, who was a great wise Stone had called some lord about court, fool, the

man.

...

1. 13. Stone had called &c.] Doran (Court Fools, p. 196) says that this remark is all that we know of Stone. It seems to have been suggested by the unseemly passages of arms between Archbishop Laud and Archibald Armstrong, the Court Fool of the time (1637). Their enmities had been of long standing. The Fool had on several occasions offered public affronts to the Archbishop, with the result (according to Francis Osborn) that Laud 'managed a quarrel with Archie the King's fool, and by endeavouring to explode him the court rendered him at last so considerable . . . as the fellow was not only able to continue the dispute for divers years, but received such encouragement from bystanders as he hath oft, in my hearing, belched in his face such miscarriages as he was really guilty of, and might, but for this foulmouthed Scot, have been forgotten; adding such other reproaches of his own as the dignity of his calling and greatness of his parts could not in reason or manners admit.' Osborn goes on to speak of the Archbishop as 'hoodwinked with passion' and as led by his too lowplaced anger into no less an absurdity than an endeavour to bring the fool into the Star Chamber, and as having at last through the mediation of the Queen got him discharged the Court. Rushworth says, further, that when news had come from Scotland that there had been tumults about the new service-book, introduced at Laud's suggestion, 'Archibald, the King's fool, said to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury,

lord complained, and has Stone whipped: Stone cries, I might have called my lord of Salisbury fool often enough, before he would have had me whipped.

3. Speak not ill of a great enemy, but rather give him good words, that he may use you the better, if you chance to fall into his hands. The Spaniard did this when he was a dying; his confessor told him (to work him to repentance), how the devil tormented the wicked that went to hell: the Spaniard replying, called the devil my lord; I hope my lord the devil is not so cruel: his confessor reproved 10 him. Excuse me for calling him so, says the Don; I know not into what hands I may fall, and if I happen into his, I hope he will use me the better for giving him good words.

as he was going to the Council Table, 'Whea's feule now? doth not your Grace hear the news from Striveling about the Liturgy?' with other words of reflection. This was presently complained of to the Council, and it produced an order from the King and the assembled Lords that 'Archibald Armestrong, the King's fool, for certain scandalous words of a high nature, spoken by him against the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, his Grace, and proved to be uttered by him by two witnesses, shall have his coat pulled over his head and be discharged the King's service and banished the Court.'-Rushworth, Collections, ii. 470.

It may be questioned whether Rushworth is correct in thus limiting the occasion of Archie's disgrace. 'Archye,' writes Mr. Gerrard to Lord Strafford (Strafford Papers, vol. ii.), 'is fallen into a great misfortune; a fool he would be, but a foul-mouthed knave he hath proved himself; being at a tavern in Westminster, drunk as he saith himself, he was speaking of the Scottish business, he fell a railing of my Lord of Canterbury, said he was a monk, a rogue, and a traitor. Of this, his Grace complained at Council, and the King being present, it was ordered he should be carried to the Porter's Lodge, his coat pulled over his ears, and kicked out of the Court,' &c.

We have also the well-known story of the fool's grace at dinner— 'Great praise be given to God, and little Laud to the devil.' See Doran, Court Fools, 205-207.

XXXIX.

EXCOMMUNICATION.

I. THAT place they bring for excommunication, put away from among yourselves that wicked person, 1 Cor. v. 13, is corrupted in the Greek. For it should be rò Tovnρóv, put away that evil from among you, not ròv Tovnрóv, that evil person. Besides, & πovηpòs is the devil, in Scripture, and it may be so taken there; and there is a new edition of Theodoret come out, that has it right rò пovпρóv. 'Tis true the Christians, before the civil state became Christian, To did by covenant and agreement set down how they would live; and he that did not observe what they agreed upon, should come no more amongst them; that is, be excommunicated. Such men are spoken of by the Apostle, Romans i. 31, whom he calls ἀσυνθέτους καὶ ἀσπόνδους; the Vulgar has it, incompositos, et sine fædere; the last word is pretty well, but the first not at all. Origen, in his book against Celsus, speaks of the Christians' ovv0kn, the translator renders it conventus, as it signifies a meeting, when it is plain it signifies a covenant, and the English Bible 20 turned the other word well, covenant-breakers. Pliny tells us, the Christians took an oath amongst themselves to live thus and thus.

1. 2. That place they bring &c.] Stanley, in his notes on the Epistles to the Corinthians, remarks on this verse that—égápare tòv Tovηpòv is the usual formula for punishment on great crimes. See Deut. xiii. 5, xvii. 7, xxiv. 7, &c., also 2 Kings xxiii. 24. He adds, however, that Theodoret and Augustine read rò Tovηpóv, and interpret it 'put away evil from amongst you.'

...

1. 16. Origen, in his book &c.] Οὕτω δὴ καὶ Χριστιανοὶ . . . συνθήκας ποιοῦνται παρὰ τὰ νενομισμένα τῷ διαβόλῳ κατὰ τοῦ διαβόλου. Contra Celsum, bk. i. ch. 1. The word ovvýkη occurs several times in this chapter, and in the sense which Selden gives to it.

1. 20. Pliny tells us, &c.] He reports it, in a letter to Trajan, as a statement made to him by certain persons who had been brought

2. The other place [dic ecclesia] tell the church (Matt. xviii. 17), is but a weak ground to raise excommunication upon, especially from the sacrament, the lesser excommunication; since when that was spoken, the sacrament was not instituted 1. The Jews' ecclesia was their Sanhedrim, their court: so that the meaning is, if after once or twice admonition this brother will not be reclaimed, bring him thither. 3. The first excommunication was 180 years after Christ,

1 Was not instituted] was instituted, MSS.

before him charged with being Christians, and who had ceased so to be. 'Adfirmabant autem, hanc fuisse summam vel culpae suae vel erroris, quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire; carmenque Christo, quasi Deo, dicere secum invicem, seque sacramento non in scelus aliquod obstringere, sed ne furta, ne latrocinia, ne adulteria committerent, ne fidem fallerent, ne depositum appellati abnegarent.' Epistles, bk. x. 97.

1. 1. The other place, dic ecclesiae &c.] Selden, in interpreting this place, is following Erastus in his Explicatio gravissimae questionis &c. (1589) where he discusses it at great length. Conf. e.g. 'Clarior evadet tractatio si quae et qualis fuerit illa Ecclesia, cui jussit dicere, consideretur. In cujus rei declaratione hoc pro initio et fundamento pono . . . Christum scilicet de Ecclesia loqui quae tum esset.' Thesis 46.

'Dic ecclesiae, id est, Dic synedrio... Ego enim verba haec Dic ecclesiae idem significare assero, quod ista significant, Dic magistratui tuo, si non est impiae religionis defensor.' Confirmatio Thesium, p. 322. See also Thesis 45 and 56.

1. 3. the lesser excommunication;] There were two forms of excommunication the lesser, involving mainly exclusion from the eucharist, and the greater involving also exclusion from all intercourse with the rest of the Christian body. See Erastus, Explicatio gravissimae questionis, &c., Thesis 7; and Selden's De Synedriis veterum Ebraeorum, i. ch. 9. Works, vol. i. p. 918.

1. 8. The first excommunication &c.] This is not clearly and probably not correctly reported. The excommunication in 180 A. D. and that by Victor are distinct. Victor's, too, was much more than what Selden is here made to term it. It was a wide sweeping sentence, cutting off the whole of the Asiatic churches from communion with the rest of the Church Catholic; and though not the first absolutely, was, in this respect, the first of its kind. See Selden, De Synedriis veterum Ebraeorum, bk. i. ch. 9. Works, i. 916. But

F

and that by Victor, bishop of Rome. But that was no more than this, that they should communicate and receive the sacrament amongst themselves, not with those of the other opinion: the controversy (as I take it) being about the feast of Easter. Men do not care for excommunication because they are shut out of the church, or delivered up to Satan, but because the law of the kingdom takes hold of them. After so many days a man cannot sue, no, not for his wife, if you take her from him. And there may 10 be as much reason to grant it for a small fault, if there be contumacy, as for a great one. In Westminster hall you may outlaw a man for forty shillings, which is their excommunication, and you can do no more for £40,000.

4. When Constantine became Christian, he so fell in love with the clergy, that he let them be judges of all things; but that continued not above three or four years, by reason they were to be judges of matters they understood that there were excommunications earlier than this and earlier than 180 A. D. is clear from p. 920 and from the chapter passim.

1. 5. Men do not care &c.] See e. g. Nathaniel Fiennes' speech in Parliament (1640): 'Were it not for the civil restraints and penalties that follow upon it (sc. Excommunication) no man will purchase an absolution though he may have it for a half-penny. And I have heard of some that have thanked the Ordinaries for abating or remitting the fees of the Courts, but I never heard of any that thanked them for reclaiming their souls to repentance by their excommunications.' Nalson, Collections, i. 760.

1.9. there may be as much reason to grant it &c.] This is the argument of the bishops in their answer to a book of articles in 1584. They urge that they do not excommunicate for two-penny causes, though indeed there be as much in 2d. as in £100,' but for disobedience to the order, decree, and sentence of the judge. So, in a temporal cause of 2d, a man is outlawed if he appear not or obey not; but he is not outlawed for 2d, but for his disobedience in a two-penny matter. Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 311.

1. 14. When Constantine became Christian &c.] The evidence for this is found in a rescript, purporting to be addressed by Constantine to the Prefect Ablavius. For the contents of this document, and for the discussions which have been raised about it, see Excursus A.