Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/195

 6. MAITLAND: THE RENAISSANCE 181 four of them were stout huguenots, and we must not forget that Calvin and Beza had both been at Bourges and had both studied the civil law. Melanchthon also was a warm admirer of Roman jurisprudence.^® It is reported that Elizabeth invited Francis Hotman to Oxford.^^ He was protestant enough, and fierce enough to exchange letters with a tiger.^® canonischen Bechts, vol. iv., p. 251.) Of Le Douarin also it is said " il dtait r6form6 de coeur" (La France protestante, ed. 2, vol. v., col. 508). " E)ie grosse Mehrzahl der hervorrogenden Juristen bekannte sich mit groeserer oder geringerer Entschiedenheit zur Partei der Hugenotten " (Stintzing, Oeschichte der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft, vol. i., p. 372). " Stintzing, Oeschichte der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft, vol. i., p. 284. " 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 hie 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 Oentilis, 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 Cond6 into touch with Elizabeth and so in promoting the expedition to Havre. Condi'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 (Diet. Nat. Biog.). " The Epistre adressie 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-Oallia 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 fol- lowing words cited and translated by Dareste from Baudouin (Fran- gois Hotman, p. 19) have a wonderfully modern sound: "Ceux qui ont (6tudi6 le droit auraient pu trouver dans I'histoire la solution de bien des difficult^s, et ceux qui ont 6crit I'histoire auraient mieux fait d'6tu- dier le d6veloppement des lois et des institutions, que de s'attacher k passer en revue les armdes, k d^crire les camps, k raconter les batailles, k compter les morts." " Sine historia caecam esse iurisprudentiam, disait Baudouin" (Brissaud, Histoire du droit franqais, p. 349).