Written in the late 1620s; Sir Edward Coke's Institutes was a pioneering four-volume treatise on English common law. While the first volume was published in 1628; the final three volumes appeared only posthumously; because the manuscripts in question had been confiscated on the orders of Charles I. The confiscation of these documents was prompted by Coke's Second Institute; which included an extensive clause-by-clause analysis of Magna Carta. As stated in the Proeme; this book eulogised the Great Charter; explaining that; 'It is called Magna Charta; not that it is great in quantity "? but in respect of the great importance and weightinesse of the matter'. King Charles I's efforts to suppress the work proved short-lived. Recognising its potential for propaganda; Parliament ordered in 1640 that Coke's papers be recovered and published. Coke's Second Institute was finally printed in 1642 on the eve of the English Civil Wars