Part 3

The Pole of the Dialogue wished to make the power to entail lands a privilege of the nobility. A project of this kind had been in the air: perhaps in King Henry’s mind. See _Letters and Papers, Henry VIII._, vol. IV., pt. 2, p. 2693 (A.D. 1529): ‘Draft bill … proposing to enact that from 1 Jan. next all entails be annulled and all possessions be held in fee simple.… The Act is not to affect the estates of noblemen within the degree of baron.’ This is one of the proposals for restoring the king’s feudal revenue which lead up to the Statute of Uses: an Act whose embryonic history has not yet been written, though Dr Stubbs has thrown out useful hints. (_Seventeen Lectures_, ed. 3, p. 321.)

When Pole left England in 1532 he went to Avignon where Alciato had lately been lecturing and became for a short while a pupil of Giovanni Francesco Ripa (Zimmermann, _Kardinal Pole_, 1893, p. 51), who was both canonist and legist. Whether at any time Pole made a serious study of the civil law I do not know. In 1534 Pole and Starkey were together at Padua; Pole was studying theology, Starkey the civil law. Starkey in a letter says ‘Francis Curtius is dead, to the grief of those who follow the doctrine of Bartholus.’ Perhaps we may infer from this that Starkey was in the camp of the Anti-Bartolists (_Letters and Papers, Henry VIII._, vol. VII., p. 331). In 1535 he says that he has been studying the civil law in order to form ‘a better judgment of the politic order and customs used in our country’ (_Ibid._ vol. VIII., p. 80).

[Sidenote: _The Reception in Germany._]

[12] For a general view of the Reception in Germany with many references to other books, see Schröder, _Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte_, ed. 2, pp. 743 ff.; ed. 3, pp. 767 ff.

[Sidenote: _Modern estimates of the Reception._]

[13] For a moderate defence of the Reception, see Windscheid, _Pandektenrecht_, ed. 7, vol. I., pp. 23 ff. (§ 10). Ihering appeals from Nationality to Universality (cosmopolitanism); _Geist des römischen Rechts_, ed. 5, vol. I., p. 12: ‘So lange die Wissenschaft sich nicht entschliesst, dem Gedanken der Nationalität den der Universalität als gleichberechtigten zur Seite zu setzen, wird sie weder im Stande sein die Welt, in der sie selber lebt, zu begreifen, noch auch die geschehene Reception des römischen Rechts wissenschaftlich zu rechtfertigen.’ The following sentences may, I believe, be taken as typical of much that has been written of late years. Brunner, _Grundzüge der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte_, 1901, p. 231: ‘Allein was stets Tadel und Vorwurf hervorrufen wird, ist die Art, wie die Rezeption … durchgeführt wurde. Ein nationales Unglück war jenes engherzige Ignorieren des deutschen Rechts, jenes geistlose und rein äusserliche Aufpfropfen römischer Rechtssätze auf einheimische Verhältnisse, die Unkenntnis des Gegensatzes zwischen diesen und dem römischen Rechte, welche taub machte gegen die Wahrheit, dass kein Volk mit der Seele eines anderen zu denken vermag.’

[Sidenote: _Public reading of the canon law forbidden._]

[14] Injunctions of 1535, _Stat. Acad. Cantab._ p. 134: ‘Quare volumus ut deinceps nulla legatur palam et publice lectio per academiam vestram totam in iure canonico sive pontificio nec aliquis cuiuscunque conditionis homo gradum aliquem in studio illius iuris pontificii suscipiat aut in eodem inposterum promoveatur quovis modo.’ See Mullinger, _Hist. Univ. Camb._ vol. I., p. 630; Cooper, _Annals of Cambridge_, vol. I., p. 375; and for Oxford, Ellis, _Original Letters_, Ser. II., vol. II., p. 60. In September 1535 Legh and Ap Ryce declare that the canon laws are ‘profligate out of this realm.’ (_Letters and Papers, Henry VIII._, vol. IX., p. 138.)

Despite a doubt suggested by Stubbs (_Seventeen Lectures_, ed. 3, p. 368), I cannot believe that the slightest hint of a degree in canon law lurks at Cambridge in the title ‘Legum Doctor’ (LL.D.): not even ‘a shadowy presentment of the double honour.’ See E. C. Clark, _Cambridge Legal Studies_, 1888, pp. 56 ff., where that title is well explained. On the continent a settled usage contrasted the _doctores legum_ and the _doctores decretorum_. See e.g. Stintzing, _Geschichte der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft_, vol. I., p. 25: ‘In Italien hatten die Legisten und Decretisten verschiedene Schulen gebildet. In Deutschland waren sie zwar zu einer Facultät vereinigt, bildeten jedoch lange Zeit zwei getrennte Abtheilungen, von denen jede ihre eigenen akademischen Grade ertheilte. Neben einander erscheinen die _Doctores Legum_ und _Doctores Decretorum_, bis seit dem Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts diese Scheidung schwindet und die _Doctores utriusque iuris_ immer häufiger und endlich zur Regel werden.’

[Sidenote: _Sir T. Smith._]

[15] See Mr Pollard’s life of Smith in _Dict. Nat. Biog._ Some important facts, especially about his ordination, were revealed by J. G. Nichols, in _Archaeologia_, XXXVIII. 98-127.

[Sidenote: _Smith and the new jurisprudence._]

[16] Smith says that when he first became a member of the senate at Cambridge he bought the Digest and Code and certain works of Alciatus, Zasius and Ferrarius. (See Mullinger, _History of the University of Cambridge_, vol. II., p. 130.) Ferrarius is, I suppose, Arnaud Ferrier, the master of Cujas. Mr Mullinger (p. 126) suggests that the Spaniard Ludovico Vives while resident at Oxford may have propagated dissatisfaction with the traditional teaching of Roman law.

[Sidenote: _The Court of Requests._]

[17] _Select Cases in the Court of Requests_ (Selden Society), 1898, p. cxxiii. Mr Leadam’s introduction to this volume contains a great deal of new and valuable matter concerning this important court. The title of the ‘masters of requests’ seems certainly to come hither from France. Just at this time there was a good deal of borrowing in these matters: witness the title of the ‘secretaries of state,’ which, it is said, spreads outwards from Spain to make the tour of the world.

[Sidenote: _Smith’s inaugural orations. Diplomacy and the civil law. The rewards for civilians._]

[18] Of Smith’s two orations there is a copy in Camb. Univ. Libr. _Baker MSS._ XXXVII. 394, 414. Mr Mullinger (_Hist. Univ. Cambr._, vol. II., p. 127) has given an excellent summary. The following passage is that in which the Professor approaches the question whether in England there is a career open to the civilian. He has been saying that we ought not to study merely for the sake of riches. ‘Tamen si qui sint qui hoc requirant, sunt archiva Londini, sunt pontificia fora, forum est praefecti quoque classis, in quibus proclamare licet et vocem vendere; est scriptura; singuli pontifices cancellarios suos habent et officiales et commissarios, qui propter civilis et pontificii iuris professionem in hunc locum accipiuntur.’ The orator proceeds to ask whether there is any youth who ungratefully thinks that proficiency in legal science will not find an adequate reward. ‘In quo regno aut in cuius regis imperio tam stulta illum opinio tenebit? In hoccine nobilissimi atque invictissimi nostri principis Henrici octavi regno, cuius magnificentia in bonas literas, studiumque in literatos, omnium omnis memoriae principum facta meritaque superavit, cuius ingentia in academias beneficia, licet nulla unquam tacebit posteritas, tamen omni celebratione maiora reperientur. Cum strenue laboraveris et periculum ingenii tui feceris, teque non lusisse operam sed dignum aliquo operae precio et honore ostenderis, cur dejicies animum? Cur desperatione conflictabis? Cur de tanto fautore ingeniorum, tam insigni bonae indolis exploratore, tam potenti Rege, tam munifico, tam liberali et egregio amatore suorum demisse viliterque sentias?’

There follows much more flattery of the king as a patron of learning of every kind. ‘Iuris quidem civilis consulti facultas in hac republica cum ad multos usus pernecessaria est, tum a principe nostro nequaquam negligi aut levem haberi, vel hoc argumento esse potest, quod tam amplo planeque regio stipendio et meam hic apud vos mediocritatem et alium Oxonii disertum ac doctum virum ius hoc civile praelegere profiterique voluit.’ And the study of the civil law is the high road to diplomatic service. ‘Ius vero civile sic est commune ut cum ex Anglia discesseris, nobiles, ignobiles, docti, indocti, sacerdotes etiam ac monachi cum aliquod specimen eruditionis videri volunt exhibuisse, nihil fere aliud perstrepunt quam quod ex hoc iure civili et pontificio sit depromptum.’ The king has wisely employed civilians in his many legations. There follow compliments paid to Stephen Gardiner, Thomas Thirlby, William Paget, Thomas Wriothesley, and Thomas Legh. On the whole, the professor can hold out to his pupils the prospect of diplomatic employment, of masterships in the chancery (‘sunt archiva Londini’), of practice in the ecclesiastical courts and the court of admiralty, and besides this they are to remember that the king is a great patron of learning. I do not see any hint that knowledge of Roman law will help a man at the bar of the ordinary English courts.

For more of the attempt to put new life into the study of Roman law at Cambridge, see Mullinger, _op. cit._, vol. II., pp. 132 ff. Though Somerset desired to see a great civil law college which should be a nursery for diplomatists, the Edwardian or Protestant Reformation of the church was in one way very unfavourable to the study of the civil law. Bishoprics and deaneries were thenceforth reserved for divines, and thus what had been the prizes of his profession were placed beyond the jurist’s reach. Dr Nicholas Wotton (d. 1567), dean of Canterbury and York, may be regarded as one of the last specimens of an expiring race. Men who were not professionally learned, men like Sir Francis Bryan (d. 1550) and Sir Thomas Wyatt (d. 1542), had begun to compete with the doctors for diplomatic missions and appointments. Also the chancellorship of the realm had come within the ambition of the common lawyer, and (though Bishop Goodrich may be one instance to the contrary) the policy which would commit the great seal to the hands of a prelate was the policy which would resist or reverse ecclesiastical innovations. Even the mastership of the rolls, which had been held by doctors of Padua and Bologna, fell to the common lawyers. Thomas Hannibal, master of the rolls (1523-1527), must, one would think, have been an Italian, as were the king’s Latin secretaries Andrea Ammonio and Pietro Vannes.

[Sidenote: _The heathenry of the Digest._]

[19] See Janssen, _Geschichte des deutschen Volkes_, vol. I., pp. 471-501, where the cry of ‘heathenry!’ is raised against the civil law. Janssen’s attempt to praise the canon law as radically Germanic while blaming the ‘absolutistic’ tendencies of the civil law seems strange. Was not the canon law, with its pope, _qui omnia iura habet in scrinio pectoris sui_, absolutistic enough?

[Sidenote: _Wyclif on English and Roman law. Wyclif and the law of the emperor. Wyclif and paynim’s law._]

[20] Wyclif, _Tractatus de officio regis_, Wyclif Society, 1887, pp. 56, 193, 237, 250: ‘Leges regni Anglie excellunt leges imperiales cum sint pauce respectu earum, quia supra pauca principia relinquunt residuum epikerie [= ἐπιείκεια] sapientum.… Non credo quod plus viget in Romana civilitate subtilitas racionis sive iusticia quam in civilitate Anglicana.… Non pocius est homo clericus sive philosophus in quantum est doctor civilitatis Romane quam in quantum est iusticiarius iuris Anglicani.… Unde videtur quod si rex Anglie non permitteret canonistas vel civilistas ad hoc sustentari de suis elemosinis vel patrimonio crucifixi ut studeant tales leges … non dubium quin clerus foret utilior sibi et ad ecclesiasticam promocionem humilior ex noticia civilitatis proprie quam ex noticia civilitatis duplicis aliene.’ By ‘the patrimony of the crucified’ Wyclif means ecclesiastical revenues, which some of the bishops have been using in the endowment of legal studies at the universities: e.g. Bishop Bateman at Cambridge.

Wyclif, _Select English Works_, ed. Arnold, vol. III., p. 326: ‘It were more profit boþe to body and soule þat oure curatis lerneden and tauȝten many of þe kyngis statutis, þan lawe of þe emperour. For oure peple is bounden to þe kyngis statutis and not to þe emperours lawe, but in as moche as it is enclosid in Goddis hestis. Þanne moche tresour and moch tyme of many hundrid clerkis in unyversite and oþere placis is foule wastid aboute bookis of þe emperours lawe and studie about hem.… It semeþ þat curatis schulden raþere lerne and teche þe kyngis statutis, and namely þe Grete Chartre, þan þe emperours lawe or myche part of the popis. For men in oure rewme ben bounden to obeche to þe kyng and his riȝtful lawes and not so to þe emperours; and þei myȝtten wonder wel be savyd, þouȝ many lawes of þe pope had nevere be spoken, in þis world ne þe toþere.’

Wyclif, _Unprinted English Works_, Early English Text Society, 1880, p. 157: ‘Þe fyue and twentiþe errour: þei chesen newe lawis maad of synful men and worldly and couetyse prestis and clerkis … for now heþenne mennus lawis and worldly clerkis statutis ben red in vnyuersitees, and curatis lernen hem faste wiþ grete desire, studie and cost.… _Ibid._ p. 184: … lawieris maken process bi sotilte and cauyllacions of lawe cyule, þat is moche heþene mennus lawe, and not accepten the forme of þe gospel, as ȝif þe gospel were no so good as paynymes lawe.’ It is interesting to see Janssen’s denunciation of Roman law as Pagan thus forestalled by the great heretic, in whose eyes the Decretals were but little, if at all, better than the Digest.

[Sidenote: _A. Agustin in England._]

[21] For Antonio Agustin (born 1517, bishop of Alife 1556, bishop of Lerida 1561, archbishop of Tarragona 1576, died 1586) see Schulte, _Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des canonischen Rechts_, vol. III., p. 723; Maasen, _Geschichte der Quellen des canonischen Rechts_, vol. I., pp. xix ff. His stay in England is attested in the _Venetian Calendars_, 1555-6, pp. 20, 24, 32, 34, 56, 166. See also _Ibid._, 1556-7, p. 1335. See also the funeral oration by And. Schott suffixed to Ant. Augustini _De emendatione Gratiani dialogorum libri duo_, Par. 1607, p. 320: ‘Iulius tertius P. M. … adeo Antonium dilexit ut et intimis consiliis adhibuerit, legatumque summa cum auctoritate in Britanniam insulam opibus florentissimam miserit, cum Rex vere Catholicus Philippus secundus Mariam reginam, Catholicorum regum Ferdinandi et Isabellae neptem, duxit uxorem.… Anno 1555 revertit ex Anglia Romam Augustinus.’ Apparently he was sent, not merely in order that he might congratulate Philip and Mary, but also that ‘tanquam iurisconsultus legato adesset’ (Schulte, _op. cit._, p. 724). He is charged by modern historians with not having spoken plainly all that he knew about the origin of the Pseudo-Isidorian decretals. England may have contributed a little towards the explosion of the great forgery by means of books that were lent to the Magdeburg Centuriators by Queen Elizabeth and Abp. Parker. See _Foreign Calendar_, 1561-2, pp. 117-9.

[Sidenote: _B. John Story._]

[22] See Mr Pollard’s life of Story in _Dict. Nat. Biog._ See also Dyer’s _Reports_, f. 300. On his arraignment for high treason Story ineffectually pleaded that he had become a subject of the king of Spain.

[23] See Stintzing, _Ulrich Zasius_, pp. 216 ff.

[Sidenote: _Zasius and Luther._]

[24] Ranke, _History of the Reformation in Germany_ (transl. Austin), vol. II., pp. 97-8.

[Sidenote: _The French lawyers and the Reformation._]

[25] The _Nihil hoc ad edictum praetoris!_ is currently ascribed to Cujas, but the ultimate authority for the story I do not know. See Brissaud, _Histoire du droit français_, p. 355: ‘La science laïque déclarait par la bouche d’un de ses plus grands représentants qu’elle n’était plus l’humble servante de la théologie; elle affirmait sa sécularisation.’ It seems that Cujas (‘wie beinahe alle Rechtsgelehrten seiner Zeit’) at first sided with the Reformers, but that he afterwards, at least outwardly, made his peace with the Catholic church (Spangenberg, _Jacob Cujas und seine Zeitgenossen_, Leipz. 1822, p. 162; Haag, _La France protestante_, ed. 2, vol. IV., col. 957-970). Doneau was a Calvinist; driven from France by Catholics and from Heidelberg by Lutherans, he went to Leyden and ultimately to Altdorf. Hotman was a Calvinist, intimately connected with the church of Geneva. Baudouin was compelled to leave France for Geneva, whence he went to Strassburg and Heidelberg; but he quarrelled with Calvin and was accused of changing his religion six times. Charles Du Moulin also had been an exile at Tübingen. It is said that after a Calvinistic stage he became a Lutheran; on his death-bed he returned to Catholicism: such at least was the tale told by Catholics. (See Brodeau, _La vie de Maistre Charles Du Molin_, Paris, 1654; Haag, _La France protestante_, ed. 2, vol. V., col. 783-789.) To say the least, he had been ‘ultra-gallican.’ (Schulte, _Geschichte der Quellen des canonischen Rechts_, vol. IV., p. 251.) Of Le Douarin also it is said ‘il était réformé de cœur’ (_La France protestante_, ed. 2, vol. V., col. 508). ‘Die grosse Mehrzahl der hervorragenden Juristen bekannte sich mit grösserer oder geringerer Entschiedenheit zur Partei der Hugenotten’ (Stintzing, _Geschichte der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft_, vol. I., p. 372).

[26] Stintzing, _Geschichte der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft_, vol. I., p. 284.

[Sidenote: _Francis Hotman and England._]

[27] Elizabeth’s invitation to Hotman is mentioned in the _Elogium_ of him prefixed to his _Opera_ (1599), p. viii, and in Dareste’s essay (p. 5). His son John spent some time at Oxford. In 1583 John tells his father that at Oxford he has plenty of time for study ‘quamvis hic miris modis frigeat iuris civilis studium et mea hac in re opera nemini grata possit esse in Anglia’ (_Hotomanorum Epistolae_, Amstd., 1620, p. 325). In 1584 John was consulted along with Alberigo Gentili by the English government in the Mendoza case (Holland, _Albericus Gentilis_, pp. 14, 15). There is nothing improbable in the story that Francis was offered a post at Oxford. He must have been well known to Cecil. In 1562 he was active in bringing Condé into touch with Elizabeth and so in promoting the expedition to Havre. Condé’s envoy brought to Cecil a letter of introduction from Hotman (_Foreign Calendar_, 1561-2, p. 601). Baudouin also at this time was making himself useful to the English government. (See e.g. _Foreign Calendar_, 1558-9, p. 173; 1561-2, pp. 60, 367, 454, 481, 510.) It has been said that Queen Elizabeth spoke of Charles Du Moulin as her kinsman (Brodeau, _Vie de C. Du Molin_, p. 4). Whether in the pedigree of the Boleyns there is any ground for this story I do not know. See _La France protestante_, ed. 2, vol. V., col. 783. Sir Thomas Craig, who is an important figure in the history of Scotch law, sat at the feet of Baudouin, and Edward Henryson, who in 1566 became a lord of session, had been a professor at Bourges (_Dict. Nat. Biog._).

[Sidenote: _Francis Hotman and Roman law._]

[28] The _Epistre adressée au tygre de la France_, a violent invective against the Cardinal of Lorraine, still finds admirers among students of French prose. Apparently Hotman would have been the last man to preach a Reception of Roman law in England. Being keenly alive to the faults of Justinian’s books, he resisted the further romanization of French law, demanded a national code, admired the English limited monarchy, and by his _Franco-Gallia_ made himself in some sort the ancestor of the ‘Germanists.’ Some of these ‘elegant’ French jurists were so much imbued with the historical spirit that in their hands the study of Roman law became the study of an ancient history. The following words cited and translated by Dareste from Baudouin (_François Hotman_, p. 19) have a wonderfully modern sound: ‘Ceux qui ont étudié le droit auraient pu trouver dans l’histoire la solution de bien des difficultés, et ceux qui ont écrit l’histoire auraient mieux fait d’étudier le développement des lois et des institutions, que de s’attacher à passer en revue les armées, à décrire les camps, à raconter les batailles, à compter les morts.’ ‘_Sine historia caecam esse iurisprudentiam_, disait Baudouin.’ (Brissaud, _Histoire du droit français_, p. 349).

[Sidenote: _Coke and Hotman. Polydore Virgil._]

[29] Coke, Introductory Letter to Part 10 of the _Reports_, and Preface to Coke upon Littleton (_First Institute_). The words of Hotman which moved Coke to wrath will be found in _De verbis feudalibus commentarius_ (F. Hotmani Opera, ed. 1599, vol. II., p. 913) s.v. _feodum_. Hotman remarks that the English use the word _fee_ (longissime tamen a Langobardici iuris ratione et instituto) to signify ‘praedia omnia quae perpetuo iure tenentur.’ He then adds that Stephanus Pasquerius (the famous Étienne Pasquier) had given him Littleton’s book: ‘ita incondite, absurde et inconcinne scriptum, ut facile appareat verissimum esse quod Polydorus Virgilius in Anglica Historia de iure Anglicano testatus est, stultitiam in eo libro cum malitia et calumniandi studio certare.’ To a foreign ‘feudist’ Littleton’s book would seem absurd enough, because in England the _feudum_ had become the general form in which all land-ownership appeared. Brunner (_Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte_, vol. II., p. 11) puts this well: ‘Wo jedes Grundeigentum sich in Lehn verwandelt, wird das Lehn, wie die Entwicklung des englischen Rechtes zeigt, schliesslich zum Begriff des Grundeigentums.’

I have not found in Polydore Virgil’s History anything about Littleton. There is a passage however in lib. IX. (ed. Basil. 1556, p. 154) in which he denounces the unjust laws imposed by William the Conqueror and (so he says) still observed in his own day: ‘Non possum hoc loco non memorare rem tametsi omnibus notam, admiratione tamen longe dignissimam, atque dictu incredibilem: eiusmodi namque leges quae ab omnibus intelligi deberent, erant, ut etiam nunc sunt, Normanica lingua scriptae, quam neque Galli nec Angli recte callebant.’ Among the badges of Norman iniquity is trial by jury, which Polydore cannot find in the laws of Alfred. This Italian historiographer may well be speaking what was felt by many Englishmen in Henry VIII’s day when he holds up to scorn and detestation ‘illud terribile duodecim virorum iudicium.’ Fisher and More were tried by jury.

[Sidenote: _Alberigo Gentili._]

[30] For Gentili see Holland, _Inaugural Lecture_, 1874, and _Dict. Nat. Biog._ For his attack on canon law see _De nuptiis_, lib. I., c. 19. For his quarrel with the ‘elegant’ Frenchmen, see _De iuris interpretibus dialogi sex_. The defenders of the new learning and the _mos Gallicus_, as it was called, threw at their adversaries the word ‘barbarian’; the retort of the conservative upholders of the _mos Italicus_ was ‘mere grammarian.’ By expelling such men as the Gentilis, Italy forfeited her pre-eminence in the world of legal study. Nevertheless it is said that both in France and Germany the practical Roman law of the courts was for a long time the law of the ‘Bartolist’ tradition. Esmein (_Histoire du droit français_, ed. 2, p. 776) says: ‘Cujas exerça sur le développement des théories de droit romain suivies en France une action beaucoup moins puissante que Du Moulin, et la filiation du romaniste Du Moulin n’est pas niable: par la forme comme par le fond, c’est le dernier des grands Bartolistes.’

[Sidenote: _Marsilianism and Henricianism._]