Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/271

 8. STUBBS: THE CANON LAW 257 of that of the sheriffs ; the larger dioceses, such as Lincoln and London, being broken up into many archdeaconries ; and the smaller ones, such as Norwich, following the exam- ple. There was a vast increase in ecclesiastical litigation, great profits and fees to be made out of it ; a craving for 1 canonical jurisprudence and reformed judicature analogous to the development of constitutional machinery; and with it the accompanying evils of the ill-trained judges and an ill- understood system of law. This continued to be the case throughout the twelfth century, and very conspicuously so in the earlier part of it. The archdeacons were worldly, mercenary, and unjust; the law was uncertain and unau- thoritative; the procedure was hurried and irregular. The evils were not confined to England, although they were here intensified by the fact of the novelty of the system. Oii^his condition of things a nerrKght arose in the mid- dle of the century ; the resuscitation of the jurisprudence ^, of Justinian and the codification of the canons by Gratian. .^.JSwrnoflre supplied the necessary procedure, the other the "^ neceseary'Iaw. I place them together, because their opera- tion reaches England nearly at the same time ; more minutely, the civil law revival precedes the canon law revival by about forty years. I must say also that, when I speak of the civil law as remodelling procedure, I do not mean that it intro- duced any sudden changes, but that it supplied principles and precedents for the due development of the older Roman procedure, which had become as much a matter of custom as that of the popular jurisprudence was. The real founder* /^ of the mediexaJ_^cflj3i3ji--lsnr-JTrrispr«dence in England was' mi/ TheoHaM^^rchbishop of Canterbury, who was consecrated 'V^-^ in 1139 and ruled the Church until 1161 ; he is best known popularly as the rival of Henry of Blois, Bishop of Win- chester, and as the patron of Thomas Becket; but his real importance is irrespective of personal matters. He saw the mischief which the maladministration of the archdeacons was doing, and instituted a nearer official of greater authority and more direct responsibility. John of Salisbury, the phir losopher and historian, was, as secretary to Archbishop Theobald, the ancestor of the diocesan chancellors, officials/