6. MAITLAND: THE RENAISSANCE 191 was never enacted; but we know equally well that the draft is in print. Its admired Latinity is ascribed to Prof. Smith's immediate successor, Dr. Walter Haddon. I take it that now-a-days few English clergymen wish that they were liv- ing — or should I not say dying? — under Dr. Haddon's pretty phrases.^^ Codification was in the air. Both in France and in Germany the cry for a new Justinian was being raised, and perhaps we may say that only because a new Justinian was not forthcoming, men endeavoured to make the best that they could of the old.*^ How bad that best would be Francis Hotman foretold. iinguam didicerit et earum legum intelligentiam multo fuerit studio assecutus: indeque fieri ut plerique eorum qui eas leges aliquo modo habent cognitas, iurisque magis quam iusticiae sunt consulti, his ipsis legibus abutantur pro hominum decipulis retibusque pecuniarum. Quo regni non tolerando incommode permotum aiunt praestantissimum prin- cipem S. M. T. patrem ut corrigendis, elucidandisque his legibus certos pridem homines deputarit. Cum autem isti legum designati instaura- tores, vel mole operis absterriti, vel aliis impediti abstractique negociis, huic malo adhuc nullum attulerint remedium, abusioque et perversio legum indies magis invalescere dicatur, eo certe id erit S. M. T. et maturius et pertinacius elaborandum quo leges illae quam rectissime ac planissime extent explicatae . . . Quid autem interest nuUae existant leges, aut quae existunt sint civibus ignoratae? " Butzer, as this treatise shows, had some knowledge of the civil law, at least in the matter of divorce. He seems to think that a code for England might be so simple an affair that it could be put into rhyme and be sung by children. (See MuUinger, Hist. Univ. Camb., vol. ii., p. 238.) " Cardwell, The Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws, Oxf. 1850. See p. xxvi, where Foxe the martyrologist (1571) testifies to the beauty of Haddon's Latin, and then says: " Atque equidem lubens optarim, si quid votis meis proficerem, ut consimili exemplo, nee dissimili etiam oratione ac stylo, prosiliat nunc aliquis, qui in vernaculis nostris legibus perpoliendis idem efficiat, quod in ecclesiasticis istis praestitit clarissimae memoriae his Haddonus." On the question as to the intended fate of heretics (including both Roman Catholics and Lutherans) under the Reformatio Legum, see Hallam, Const. Hist., ed. 1832, vol. i., p. 139; Maitland, Canon Law in England, p. 178. "Commines attributes to Louis XL (circ. an. 1479) a project of re- ducing to uniformity all the customs of France. Francis Bacon more than once, when urging his schemes of law reform, referred to Louis's abortive project (Spedding, Life and Letters, vi. 66; vii. 362). Com- mines's story is not rejected by modern historians of French law. The official redaction of the various " general customs " (customs of prov- inces) was commanded in 1453 by the ordinance of Montils-les-Tours. Little, however, was done in this matter until the reigns of Charles VHI and Louis XH. Many customs were redacted about the year 1510: that of Orleans in 1509; that of Paris in 1510. This might be described as a measure of codification: " elle fit, des coutumes, de veritables lois icrites" or, as we might say, statute law. (Esmein, Histoire du droit franqais, 746 fF. ; VioUet, Histoire du droit frangais, 142 ff . ; Planiol,
