Source Problems in English History
Origin of the Jury
telligence of the post-Conquest kings need little insistence. Ninety-one years out of roughly the first century and a quarter after 1066, England was ruled by a William I., a Henry I., and a Henry II.; and the centennial year of the Conquest brought forth the Assize of Clarendon. Though there was a falling off in the quality of kings during the next century, enough had been done. A standard had been set, traditions had been established, ministers had been trained. No more impressive proof of Henry II.'s greatness can be desired than to watch generation after generation of ministers perpetuating his ideals and methods under the politically incompetent or abusive Richard I., John, and Henry III., and to see how his great ordinances laid the foundation of the courts and the common law. So, if the English middle class was a good tool, there was a firm, clever hand to use it.
II. INTRODUCTIONS TO THE SOURCES
I. The Monastery of St. Vincent versus Certain Serfs of the Monastery.
This record of litigation is taken from the Chronicon Vulturnense or Chronicle of Voltumo. This work was compiled late in the eleventh century, at the famous Italian monastery of St. Vincent in the province of Capua, by John, a monk of that house. He began with the eighth century and brought the record down to his own time. In 1108 he presented his work to Pope Paschal II. The Chronicle is for the most part a collection of documents relating to the monastery's history, and in so far is of value; but its slight narrative portion, which deals mainly with the early, mythical period of the house, is valueless.
The document here selected is from the ninth century,
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