CURIOSITIES OF BRACTON.
By W. W.. Edwards.
THE ancient law writings are a strange
mixture of law, theology, and morals.
Bracton is no exception to this rule. In
giving his reasons for writing his celebrated
work, he writes as follows of those who ad
ministered the laws and customs of the
realm : —
"But since it often happens that the laws and
customs of this kind, are drawn into an abuse by
foolish and ignorant persons who mount the judg
ment seat, before they have learned the laws, and
who stand in doubts and are many times per
verted in their opinions, and who decide causes
rather according*to their own arbitrary opinion,
than by the authority of the laws, therefore for the
instruction at least, of the younger, I Henry de
Bracton have directed my mind to a careful scru
tiny of the ancient judgments of just judges, not
without vigils and labor, and I have compiled
their acts, counsels, and responses, and whatever
I have found worthy of note, in one summary, in
the order of titles and paragraphs, without preju
dice to a better opinion, commending those writ
ings to perpetual memory, and asking of the
reader that if he should find anything superfluous
or amiss in this work he will correct and amend
that error, or with conniving eyes pass it by, since
to hold everything in perpetual remembrance and
to sin in nothing, is more divine than human."
To those about to assume judicial honors
he gives the following charge : —
"When it becomes the duty of any one to ren
der judgments and become a judge, let him take
heed, to himself, lest by judging perversely and
contrary to the laws, either through importunity, or
reward, or some advantage of temporal gain, he
should thereby prepare himself for the pains of
eternal sorrow, and lest he shall find himself
taking vengeance in the day of the wratli of that
God, who has said, ' vengeance is mine and I
will repay it; ' and when the kings and princes of
the earth weep and wail, when they see the son of
man, by reason of the fear of his torments, where
gold and silver are of no avail to liberate them.
But if any one fears not that trial, in which the Lord shall be accuser, advocate, and judge, but from whose decrees no appeal may be taken, because the father has given all judgment to his son, who closes and none can open, and who opens and none can close. O! that rigid scru tiny, in which not only the actions, but even every hateful word which men have injustly spoken, shall be rendered an account of. Who therefore shall be able to flee the wrath to come? For the son of man shall send his angels, who shall collect all that gives offense, and all those who do eniquity, and shall bind them up into bundles for burning, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, groans and howls, wailing, grief, and torment, noise, clamor, fear and trembling, sorrow and labor, heat and stench, darkness and anxiety, cru elty and harshness, calamity and distress, poverty and mourning, oblivion and confusion, twistings and prickings, bitterness and terrors, hunger and thirst, cold and a furnace like heat, sulphur and burning fire forever and ever. Therefore let each one beware that judgment, where the judge is ter ribly scrutinizing, intolerably severe, greatly of fended, vehemently angry, whose sentence is im mutable, whose prison is one from which there is no return, whose torments are without end, with out interval and without relaxation, horrible tortur ers who never weary, never pity, fear of everything throws into confusion, the conscience condemns, the thoughts reprove, and escape is impossible, wherefore saint Augustine exclaims ' O how very great are my sins.' Wherefore, when any one shall have God the just for judge and his conscience for a witness he need not fear anything unless it be his own case." The disjointed and interjective style of the above is to be noted. He also gives the following admonitions to incompetent persons who made haste to occupy judicial stations; namely, — •' But let no foolish and unlearned person, pre sume to ascend the judgment seat, which is as it were, the throne of God, lest he mistake light for
