Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/228

 214 //. FROM THE llOO'S TO THE 1800'S and the English people were led by the financial exactions of the Papal Court, and the controversies of the Reformation, to regard with suspicion and dislike everything savouring of Rome, three important courts in the kingdom were largely influenced by the Civil Law, if their procedure was not en- tirely derived from it. These were the Court of Chancery, the Court of Admiralty, and the Ecclesiastical Courts.^ The Court of the Constable and Marshal also proceeded according to the Civil Law : ^ " causas ex jure civili Romanorum et con- suetudinihus armorum, et non ex jure municipali Anglorum esse dijudicandas," and Duck also states that the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge proceeded according to the civil law : " dijudicant per jus civile et secundum juris civilis for- mam." ^ But these latter are of small importance. The Court of Chancery originates in the position of the king as the fountain of justice.* To him petitions were ad- dressed by suppliants who conceived themselves wronged by the Common Law, or who found no remedy for the injury they complained of. Difficult and novel points arising in the Common Law Courts were also reserved by the judges for the consideration of the king in Council. As the Chancellor was always in attendance on the king, the petitions for royal grace and favour were entrusted to him, first for custody, and ulti- mately for hearing. Under Edward III. the Chancellor's tri- bunal assumed a definite and separate character, and petitions for grace began to be directly addressed to him instead of coming indirectly into his hands. From 1358, such transac- tions were recognized as his proper province, and the power- ful and complicated machinery of his Equitable Jurisdiction began to grow. There were reasons why its growth should be on Roman lines. Several lay Chancellors had been appointed In the reign of Edward III., probably in consequence of the petition of the Parliament that, as ecclesiastics were not amenable to the laws, only lay persons might In future be appointed Chancellor.^ But every Chancellor from 1380 to 1488 was a » Spence, i. 340. R. Parning, 1341. Thorpe, Knivet, 1372.
 * Sub. C. xii. Eccl. Courts; C. xiii. Admiralty Courts.
 * Duck, ii. 8, 3, 12, 22. » Duck, ii. 8, 3, 30.
 * Stubbs, i. 603, 604 note. ii. 268,