Note 145 — Book V.
John Beames translation
“Yet,” says the Mirror, “if the Defendant can shew a free stock of his Ancestors, either in the conception, or in the birth, the Defendant hath always been accounted for a freeman, although his Father, Mother, Brother, and Cousins, and all his Parentage, acknowledge themselves to be the Plaintiff’s Villeins, and do testify the Defendant to be a Villein.” (Mirror, c. 3. s. 23.)
We must suppose that this was an improvement posterior to the time of Glanville, since though some part of the Mirror was probably written before the conquest, the other part was written subsequently to the Reign of Henry the 2nd. Few ancient law books would perhaps stand higher than the Mirror, could we clearly ascertain what was original, what was superadded. At present, one part of the work is often a direct refutation of another part.