7. SCRUTTON: ROMAN LAW INFLUENCE 247 tutions to a mingled Roman and South German origin, and even this at present lacks any certain foundation. The intro- duction of wills and charters comes from clerical and Roman sources, but except in this respect we cannot say that the influence of the Civil Law has in any way affected the Law of England until the coming of Vacarius. The latter half of the twelfth century revives the study of Justinianean law throughout Europe, and England also shares in the revival. The Ecclesiastical Courts rule them- selves by the Roman Law, and from their proceedings Roman influences affect the work of Glanvil. Bracton's great treatise contains much Roman matter and terminology, but his knowl- edge of the civil law was only that of every clerical judge, (and they were many), of his century. The full extent of their influence can only, even imperfectly, be traced by a de- tailed study of the Year-Books, a task far beyond our present powers ; but it is clear that the revival was followed by a re- action. The Roman Law became not only a subject of dis- trust, owing to the conflicts between King and Pope ; it even dropped into oblivion. With Coke, Hale, and Blackstone, while there is knowledge of the Law of Rome, there is also a clear definition of its position, as of no force in England, unless as adopted by the English law, or in particular courts where its authority was recognized by English jurisprudence. In those courts we have traced its history ; in the Ecclesias- tical Courts in their jurisdiction over marriages and succes- sion at death, in the Admiralty Courts, proceeding according to the Civil Law and the Law of the Sea, and in the influence of the Law Merchant on both the Admiralty and the Common Law; and we have referred though briefly to some of the points in which the Common Law itself has been affected by the Law of Rome.^ That the history of Roman Law In England has yet to be written, no one is more conscious than the author of this Essay ; he can only hope for an Indulgence, proportioned to the difficulties of the task, in the attempt to gather together some of the materials for such a history.
- [Compare the Essays in Volume II under Ecclesiastical Courts,
Equity, and Commercial Law; and Maitland's Bracton and Azo (Selden Society). — Eds.]
