MARE CLAUSUM. - Acehbooks.org

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this day so indifferently permitted to all of all Nations, euen to Turkes, Iewes,
Pagans, not being professed enirnies ; and therefore much lesse to bee restrained
on Sea in all respects. So that I cannot but perswade both my selfe,
and other loyali subiects, that the said pretence is but a very pretence ; and
so much the more to bee suspected as a drift against our vndoubted right
and propriety of fishing on this side the Seas.
Now remembring the first ground, whereby the Authour would make Mare
liberum, to be a position fortified by the opinions and sayings of some
olde Poets, Orators, Philosophers, and (wrested) Iurisconsults, that Land and
Sea, by the first condition of nature, hath beene and should bee common
to all, and proper to none ') : against this I minde to vse no other reason, but
a simple and orderly reciting of the wordes of the holy Spirit, concerning
that first condition naturall of Land and Sea from the very beginning; at
which time, God hauing made and so carefully toward man disposed the foure
Elements, two to swimme aboue his head, and two to lie vnder his feete :
that is .to say, the Earth and Water, both wonderfully for that effect ordered
to the vpmaking of one and a perfite Globe, for their more mutuall seruice
to mans vse : according to this, immediatly after the creation, God saith to
man". Subdue the earth, and rule ouer the fish: which could not be,
but by a subduing of the waters also.
And againe, after the Flood, God saith, Replenish the earth 1 ': and for
the better performance heereof, God in his iustice against the building of
Babylon, scattred man-kind ouer all the face ol' the earth c ; therefore it isthat
Moses saith , These are the lies of' the Nations diuided in their
lands. So that heereby is euident, that things here done, are not so naturally
too cómon; sith God the author of nature, is also as well author of the
diuision, as of the composition : and yet how-so-euer, in his iustice as is said,
yet in his mercy also and indulgent care, for the welfare and peace of mankind.
For those are sentences both vulgar and sure, set down by the Romane
Iurisconsults e , Cömunio parit discoi d yun. Quod communiter possidetur,
vitio naturali ncgligitur. Habet communio reruin gère
n d a r ü difficult a tem '.
Afterward, the earth, by the infinite multiplication of mankind, beeing largely
replenished, and theiefore of necessitie thus diuided, and things vpon the earth
not sufficient for the necessaries and desires of m in in euery region, followed
of force the vse of trading vpon the seas ; not onely for the ruling of the fish
therein, according to the commandement giuen by the Creator at the beginning,
but also for transporting of things necessary for the vse of man. For the which,
& other causes aboue mentioned, the waters became diuisible, and requiring
a partition in like manner with the earth; according to that of Bald us 3 ) : VI-
a Genes. 1. 21.
b eod. c. 9. v. 1.
c eod. c. 11. v. 8.
d eod. c. 10. v. 5.
e Vlp. L qui neque. de reb. eor. qui sub tutel. (I. 8 § 2. I». XXVII. 9.)
f 1. pater, parag. dulcissimé de leg. t. (1. 77 § 20. D. XXXI.)
') cf. Mare Liberum, p. 17—25.
: ) De dvic hier vermelde volzinnen staau op de aangehaalde Pandecten-plaatsen
niet. Iets dergelijks als in den eersten volzin wordt gezegd in de
geciteerde plaats uit U. XXXI; den inhoud van den derden volzin kan men opmaken
uit de geciteerde lex uit I). XXVII. Den tweeden volzin vind ik op geen der
beide plaatsen.
*) Baldi Ubaldi In Dig. Comment. I. fol. 45.