Abstract
Seventeenth-century England is primarily a textual era for legal authority, but the book also has the capacity to act as sign, and in a few notable instances it does so, providing authority to check both royal prerogative and parliamentary power during the Interregnum. Although its precise meaning is debated, royal prerogative includes the right of the monarch to act as a higher court than common law courts and may encompass the right to legislate. It was the central issue in the seventeenth-century power struggle between English courts, parliament, and the monarchy.
The image of the book has always appeared among icons signifying sovereign authority. However, in seventeenth-century England, the printed law book came to represent a check on government power, especially absolute monarchy and royal prerogative over the interpretation and application of law. To be properly studied within semiotics, signs must be understood holistically, using tools from a variety of disciplines. Holistic media theory, when expanded to include the concepts of cognitive authority and connotative meaning, illuminates the book’s evolving signification and function leading up to and including the seventeenth century.
This chapter first sets forth foundational concepts with an explanation of holistic media theory, cognitive authority, and their connections to legal semiotics. It then contrasts the book with another sign of authority—the royal orb—which signifies dominion and prerogative, and finally illustrates specific instances of the emerging association of books, particularly Lord Coke’s Institutes and Reports and the King James Bible, with authority and conscientious objection.
We have corrected Thy work and have founded it upon miracle, mystery and authority. – The Grand Inquisitor (Dostoyevsky 1955, 282)
Director of the Leon E. Bloch Law Library and professor of law, University of Missouri–Kansas City. The author thanks Julia Belian, Erin Lavelle, Michael Robertson, Allen Rostron, and David Thomas for their expertise and significant contributions to this chapter.
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- 1.
The meaning of “royal prerogative” is a subject of much controversy as illustrated by the fact that King James, probably as a concession to Parliament, chastised John Cowell for going too far on the subject in his famous law dictionary (Hicks 1921, 37–44). In sum, royal prerogative includes the right of monarch to sit in judgment, as a higher court than common law courts, and may encompass the right to legislate [compare Cowell 1607, entry for “Prærogative of the King” (no page or folio references given), with Cowell 1964, entry for the same (no page or folio references given)].
- 2.
Unless otherwise noted, references to the Institutes are to Part I (Coke 1633). Coke’s third or 1633 edition of the First Part of the Institutes is the last edition appearing before his death in 1634 and is so selected for reference.
- 3.
This work cites the first English edition of the Reports, not published until 1728 (Coke 1728).
- 4.
All references to the Bible are from the King James Version.
- 5.
- 6.
Additional illustrations of the orb and regalia include Queen Elizabeth, King James I, Charles II, Mary II, and Edward II (King 1985, 3: 65, fig. 13, 80, fig. 19 [Queen Elizabeth, 1603–4, with sphere]); (Keay 2002, 63 [King James I with orb], 19 [orb of Charles II]; Holmes and Sitwell 1972, 17 [orbs of Charles II and Mary II, in 1689]); (Binski and Panayotova 2005, 136–37 [coronation of Edward II includes sphere]). Henry VIII is depicted with his orb on manuscripts, The Great Seal, and Black Book of the Garter (Starkey 1991, 85, fig. V.35, 86, figs. 38–39, 95, fig. VI.5, 141, fig. XI.2). The orb is even present with Charlemagne in a manuscript and mural depicting the “worthies” of Arthurian legend (Loomis and Loomis 1966, illus. 13–14).
- 7.
The etymology for Urim from the Hebrew is “light,” or since it is in the plural, “lights” (Oxford English Dictionary Online 2009, etymological entry for Urim). It is usually referred to with Thummim as in Urim and Thummim. The etymology of Thummim is “perfections” or “complete Truth” (Strong 1890, 124 in “Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary,” entry 8550). The Urim and Thummim were not the 12 stones of Aaron’s breastplate but were attached to (M’Clintock and Strong 1894, 677). Some have argued that the Urim and Thummim were a system of lots, with “yes” and “no” written on different stones, but M’Clintock and Strong reject this since “[i]n the cases when the Urim was consulted, the answers were always more than a mere negative or affirmative” (Id, 677).
- 8.
“There were Kings, James stated, before there was law” (Bowen 1957, 228–29).
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
To understand the relationship between Coke’s Institutes and earlier legal codices, examine the layout of Justinian’s Digest from the twelfth century in the Shoyan Collection (Iustinianus: Digestum Novum Cum Glossa [although the resolution of the image makes study difficult, note the tiny alphabetical enumeration of the marginal gloss, but lacking any indication of cross-referencing, and any visible indication of citation to other sources]).
- 12.
- 13.
Sir Thomas More estimated that 40% of the English population could not read, implying that 60% could (Cressy 1980, 44). But More’s estimate may have been accurate only for London or urban areas. By 1650, the literacy rate (based upon making a mark) was about 30% for men and 15% for women, while in London, as of about 1641, the rate for men was as high as 78% percent (Id, 44, 74, map 1).
- 14.
Apparently Charles I’s Jezabel was his wife Henrietta Maria, who was too openly Catholic in her practices (Encyclopædia Britannica Online 2009, entries for Henrietta Maria and Charles I). Hill enquires, “Was it just possible that Charles himself was so much under the influence of his Jezebel that he was too reprehensible?” (Hill 1994, 50).
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Callister, P.D. (2014). The Book as Authoritative Sign in Seventeenth-Century England: A Review Through the Lens of Holistic Media Theory. In: Wagner, A., Sherwin, R. (eds) Law, Culture and Visual Studies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9322-6_3
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