Tracts written by John Selden of the Inner-Temple, Esquire ; the first entituled, Jani Anglorvm facies altera, rendred into English, with large notes thereupon, by Redman Westcot, Gent. ; the second, England's epinomis ; the third, Of the original of ecclesiastical jurisdictions of testaments ; the fourth, Of the disposition or administration of intestates goods ; the three last never before extant.
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Title
Tracts written by John Selden of the Inner-Temple, Esquire ; the first entituled, Jani Anglorvm facies altera, rendred into English, with large notes thereupon, by Redman Westcot, Gent. ; the second, England's epinomis ; the third, Of the original of ecclesiastical jurisdictions of testaments ; the fourth, Of the disposition or administration of intestates goods ; the three last never before extant.
Author
Selden, John, 1584-1654.
Publication
London :: Printed for Thomas Basset ... and Richard Chiswell ...,
MDCLXXXIII [1683]
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Subject terms
Law -- England -- History and criticism.
Probate law and practice -- England.
Ecclesiastical law -- England.
Inheritance and succession -- England.
Link to this Item
http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A59100.0001.001
Cite this Item
"Tracts written by John Selden of the Inner-Temple, Esquire ; the first entituled, Jani Anglorvm facies altera, rendred into English, with large notes thereupon, by Redman Westcot, Gent. ; the second, England's epinomis ; the third, Of the original of ecclesiastical jurisdictions of testaments ; the fourth, Of the disposition or administration of intestates goods ; the three last never before extant." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A59100.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 8, 2025.
Pages
CHAP. V.
A brief Account of Q. Regent Martia, and of Merchenlage, whe∣ther so called from her, or from the Mercians. Annius again censured for a Forger, and his Berosus for a Fabulous Writer.
THe Female Government of Martia, Widow to King Quintiline, who had undertaken the Tuition of Sisillius Son to them both, he being not as yet fit for the Government, by reason of his Nonage; found out a Law, which the Britons called the Martian Law. This also among the rest (I tell you but what Jeoffry of Monmouth tells
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me) King Alfred translated, which in the Saxon Tongue he called Merchenlage. Whereas nevertheless in that most elaborate Work of Camden, wherein he gives account of our Countrey, Merchenlage is more appositely and fitly derived from the Mercians, and they so called from the Saxon word Mearc, that is, a Limit, Bound or Border.
These are the Stories, which Writers have delivered to us concer∣ning those times, which were more ancient than the History of the Romans; but such as are of suspected, o•• doubtful, that I may not say of no credit at all. Among the more Learned, there is hardly any Critick, who does not set down Annius in the list of Forgers. And should one go to draw up the account of Times, and to observe that difference which is so apparent in that Berosus of Viterbium from Sacred Scriptures, and the Monuments of the Hebrews, one would perhaps think, that he were no more to be believed, than another of the same name, who from a perpendicular position of the wandring Stars to the Center of the World in the Sign of Cancer, adventured to foretel, that all things should be burnt; and from a like Congress of them in Capri∣corn,* 1.1 to say, there would be an universal Deluge. The story is in Seneca.