dies; or by chance and accident, as the essential form is corrupted because the body doth corrupt in which it is, otherwise it could not be corrupted. The soul is free from corruption both ways; it hath nothing in it of itself by which it may draw to an end, neither can there be any thing in it by reason of the body, or any other thing, by which at length it should be dissolved. This the beginning of our soul doth shew: for how was it? God himself inspiring it, he gave it therefore somewhat of his own excellency, even immortality, as it was capable of; and what was it? his breath, some part of that heavenly air; and what was the work of it? life in the dual, or plural number, a long, a double, an everlasting life. When the soul of Rachel is said to go out of here, and the soul of the child to return to his inward parts, is it not clearly taught that it dieth not with the body? What made Balaam wish that his soul might die the death of the righteous, and his end be like his, but that it was well with them after death? The Wise Man saith, that the souls of the righteous are with God, and that no torment toucheth themh, and that the spirit goeth to God that gave it. When Christ saith, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit; to the thief, This day shalt thou be with me in paradise1; when Stephen crieth, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit m; and Paul, I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ; do they not shew that the soul is immortal? And the immortality of the soul of Christ maketh much for the immortality of our souls; for he hath promised, that where he is, there his servants shall be also. What other thing doth Christ teach us when he saith, The body they can kill, the soul they cannot killP; and that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living 9, yet the God of Abraham? wherefore his body was dead, but his soul lived. The rich man lived in hell, and the poor man in Abraham's bosom ; and in the Apocalypse, they are happy that die in the Lord, for they rest from • Gen. xxxv. 18. h Ecclus. iii. J. m Acts vii. 59. 4 Matt. xxii. 32. f 1 Kings xvii. 22. i Eccles. xii. 7. k Luke xxiii. 46. Numb. xxii. ro. their labours. Sin doth not corrupt the substance but the quality of our souls, and torment may grieve it, but not consume. Augustine therefore saith, "Kill not thy soul "thyself, and thy soul will not die. The life of the flesh "is the soul, and the life of the soul is God; but yet the "soul is immortal, for it liveth even being dead." And again, "The souls of men are all immortal; those that "shall see God are blessed, those that shall not see God "are wretched t." And Hilarius saith, " He that thinketh "the soul dieth with the body, let him hear that it cometh "not of the earth, but by the breath of God, and that death "is not the destruction but the parting of it from the "body";" and again, "The soul is immortal, for it is life "unto itself; as it cannot fall from itself, so it cannot fall "from life." Last of all; religion, and the fear of God, which is in man, doth shew it to be immortal; for we worship God because our souls are made to his image, and we know he is a rewarder of them that serve him. Now religion is grafted in men's minds by nature; for it hath been always, yea before any books of it were written, and all wise men have ever minded godliness and virtue, with the study of wisdom. Now to what end were religion, if there were no reward? and what reward is there, if the souls do not live for ever? for in this life the reward of the godly is but small. The soul, therefore, seeing it hath no cause of death within it or without it; seeing it hath so many testimonies of an enduring life by scriptures, and all that were counted just; it cannot be that it dieth with the body, but liveth and abideth for ever after the body is dissolved. • Rev. xiv. 13. De Cog. Ver. Vitæ, cap. 32. u Hil. in Psalm lxiv. A DISCOURSE OF TENURES WHICH WERE BEFORE THE CONQUEST; NAMELY, Knight-service, soccage, and frankalmoign; and the effect of those tenures, wards, reliefs, heriots, escuage, or warfaring by tenure, reservations of rent, or victuals, and provisions, or purveyors in the Saxon times; that the same estates in the soil of this land were due unto the subjects by birthright of their ancestors, the inhabitants of the land before duke William's time; namely, to have land in fee-simple, freeholders, copyholders, customary tenants, and villains, before the year 1066; together with the resemblances or disresemblances of those in outlandish, ancient, or modern estates. THE book of Doomsday, which is militia Anglicani imperii, as it was in the Conqueror's time, speaks often of land that in Edward the Confessor's time gildabat; and of other land which did not gildare: that which did gildare was land held by knight's-service, which paid taxes or escuage; the other is soccage-land. That there was soccage tenure in the Saxons' time is evident by the book of Doomsday, which almost in every leaf makes mention of sokemanni, in Edward the Confessor's time, which is soccage tenure; and in the written Ingulphus, which speaks of the laws in Edward the Confessor's time, there is mention of tenure in soccage, in express terms. That there were tenures by knight's-service is cleared by patents of king Ethelred to the abbey of Abingdon, freeing the land a regali servitio, and by a patent which William the Conqueror made to Allan the earl of Britain, giving him omnes terras et villas quæ nuper fuerunt comitis Edwini in Eboracshire cum feodis militum et aliis libertatibus, ita libere et honorifice, sicut idem Edwinus eadem tenuit ante obsessionem Ebor. In Doomsday book, in the description of Surrey, mention is made of one Cactio, who in the Conqueror's time held de Wardardo, et reddit 50s. et servitium unius militis. The leiger books of St. Alban's, containing the acts of king Offa overrunning the Kentish men, convocatis omnibus sibi officium militare debentibus. King Edgar gave the hundred of Oswald to Oswald bishop of Worcester, et redditiones socharium et regis servientium: this hundred at this day is called the hundred of Oswald, and notice of his grant is taken in Doomsday book, where it is called Wircester. Bracton sheweth that forinsecum servitium, regale servitium, and militare servitium, are all one. It will likewise be proved, that these tenures were of the same nature, and had likewise fruits, as now they have; for these tenures had HOMAGE due unto them, as now they have; as is proved by Malmesbury; who, speaking of the controversy between Henry I. and Anselm, saith, the king would have him do homage, more antecessorum, which sheweth it had been a custom long before. The leiger-book of Abingdon, says Turkillus, did homage to the abbot of Abingdon for his lands in Kingstone; but being slain in the battle with Harold, Henricus de Ferrariis seized upon his land; with whom the abbot had much contention. By the leiger book of Ely, Ethelstan went to Whitton, and did him homage for land in Ely, in king Edgar's time. That there was fealty, Ingulphus proves, who says that Edward the Confessor gave unto Griffin and his heirs the principality of Wales, reserving FEALTY. For both homage and fealty; Doomsday, in describing the manor of Northwood in Kent, in the Confessor's time, saith, that in his time an hundred burgesses of Canterbury did suit and serRALEGH, MISC. WORKS. ૨૧ vice to that manor. A manuscript of Abingdon shews how Wasthelinus, whose surname was Visus Lapis, did homage and fealty. After William the Conqueror's time, abbots and prioresses did homage, and in one of the manuscripts of Peterborough is the form of the homage of the abbot of Crowland, 34 Edward I. which he did for the land in Veikerk, which he held of the abbot of Peterborough, and another of the prioress of St. Michael, for land in Stanford. And by the deeds of Abingdon it appears, that when the abbot and convent received homage, that the abbot and convent sat jointly together. Radulphus de Diceto, the dean of Paul's, writes, that anno 1163 Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, excommunicated William, the patron of an advowson, because he expelled one that the archbishop put into the living: but William the patron being tenant in capite to Henry II. the king was very angry with the bishop for excommunicating his tenant, which was contrary to the law, unless it be by the consent of the king; because the tenant cannot now do homage to the king, being excommunicated; for the king cannot kiss him without sin, the rule of law being non est communicandum in osculo cum excommunicato; and a lord is not to receive homage of his tenant during the time of excommunication. And as homage and fealty were due by reason of knight'sservice, so likewise WARDSHIP was an effect before the conquest. When William the Conqueror was at Rome, Rainaldus, upon the death of Adelinus, was chosen abbot of Abingdon, being a monk Gemetecensis cœnobii, in the year 1084. Indictione 7. Epact. 2. At this time by custom the abbot of Abingdon had wardship of body and land by the manuscript of that abbey; and in the said abbot's time it appears that miles quidam Walterus de Ripario, i. e. Walter Rivers, who held land called Bedrum of the abbot, died, leaving his son of his own name within age: and Godsoline, the uncle of the infant by his father's side, would have had the custody of the land and body of his nephew; and impleaded |
