Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/210

 196 //. FROM THE llOO'S TO THE 1800'S many differences between England and Germany, between England and France, between England and Scotland.^^ Let 99 flF. Dr. Brunner (Orundziige der deutschen Bechtsgeschichte, 1901, p, 216) has lately said that Roman jurisprudence " auch wenn sie nicht geradezu bauernfeindlich war, doch kein Verstandnis besass fiir die Mannigfaltigkeit der bauerlichen Besitzformen des deutschen Rechtes." One of the revolutionary programmes proposed an exclusion of all doc- tors of civil or canon law from the courts and councils of the princes. See Egelhaaf, op. cit., pp. 499, 598. The following is a pretty little tale: — "So geschah es wirklich einmal zu Frauenfeld im Thurgau, wo die SchofFen einen Doctor aus Constanz, der sich fiir die Entscheidung eines Erbschaftsstreites auf Bartolus und Baldus berufen woUte, zur Thiire hinauswarfen mit den Worten: ' Hort ihr, Doctor, wir Eidge- nossen fragen nicht nach dem Bartele und Baldele. Wir haben sonder- bare Landbrauche und Rechte. Naus mit euch, Doctor, naus mit euch ! ' Und habe, heisst es in dem Berichte weiter, der gute Doctor miissen abtreten, und sie Amtleute haben sich einer Urtel verglich«n, den Doc- tor wieder eingefordert und ein Urtel geben wider den Bartele und Baldele und wider den Doctor von Constanz." (Janssen, Oeschichte des deutschen Volkes, vol. i., p. 490.) It is a serious question what would have become of our English copyholders if in the sixteenth century Roman law had been received. The practical jurisprudence of this age seems to have been kinder to the French than to the German peasant; perhaps because it was less Roman in France than in Germany. See E. Levasseur in Lavisse et Rambaud, Histoire genirale, vol. iv., p. 188: "Des jurisconsultes commence rent a considerer I'inf^odation comme une alienation et le colon censitaire comme le veritable propri^taire de la terre sur laquelle le seigneur n'aurait possede qu'un droit Eminent." The true Romanist, I take it, can know but one dominium, and is likely to give that one to the lord. " As regards Germany, the theoretical continuance of the Roman empire is not to be forgotten, but its influence on the practical Recep- tion of Roman law may be overrated. In the age of the Reception Roman law came to the aid, not of imperialism, but of particularism. Then it is true that English law was inoculated in the thirteenth cen- tury when Bracton copied from Azo of Bologna. The effect of this is well stated by Dr. Brunner in the inaugural address delivered by him as rector of the University of Berlin {Der Antheil des deutschen Rechtes an der Entwicklung der Universitdten, Berlin, 1896, p. 15): " In England und Frankreich, wo die Aufnahme romischer Rechtsge- danken friiher erfolgte, hat diese nach Art einer prophylactischen Im- pfung gewirkt und das mit ihnen gesattigte nationale Recht widerstands- fahig gemacht gegen zerstorende Infectionen." As to the Roman law in Bracton, I may be allowed to refer to Bracton and Azo, Selden Society, 1895: in the introduction to that volume I have ventured to controvert some sentences that were written by Sir H. Maine. Bracton became important for a second time in the sixteenth century when (1569) his book was printed, for it helped Coke to arrange his ideas, as any one may see who looks at the margin of Coke's books. The medieval chancery has often been accused of romanizing. Its procedure was suggested by a summary procedure that had been devised by decre- tists and legists: the general aim of that scheme was the utmost sim- plicity and rapidity. (Contrast this summary procedure as revealed by Select Cases in Chancery, ed. Baildon, and Select Cases in the Court of Requests, ed. Leadam, with the solemn procedure of the civil law exemplified by Select Cases in the Court of Admiralty, ed. Marsden: