Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/658

 644 V. BENCH AND BAR During this time he made a large collection of precedents (known as his Note-Book) out of the decisions of PateshuU and Raleigh. A fortunate inference by Vinogradoff, con- firmed by the lamented Maitland, has identified this collec- tion of precedents with a manuscript in the British Museum, and the work of Bracton, long considered a mere attempt to apply the civil law to our common law, has been shown to be a careful statement of the decisions of the notable judges, who preceded him. That the general conceptions, the arrangement, and the classification of Bracton's work should have been taken from a writer on the civil law is not at all strange. There was no other source to consult. The Roman and the canon law had been taught by Vacarius in England, and he had written a book for his students. Manuscripts of the Roman law no doubt were brought to England. The flourishing school " utriusque juris " at Oxford must have had many scholars. Ricardus Anglicus, an Englishman, gained celebrity in the law in Italy. Italian lawyers came to England, and the King had in his service the renowned Hostiensis. Simon Norman- nus, Odo de Kilkenny, Roger de Cantilupe, and Alexander Saecularis belonged to this band of " Romish footed " legists of the King. English students went to Bologna and studied under Azo, " lord of all the lords of law." Azo's book Bracton had constantly with him as he was writing his *' De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae." Yet the substance of Bracton's book is a careful statement of the actual law administered by the courts. A priest himself, he everywhere shows his loyalty to the secular tribunals. Like Henry de Bath, he was dismissed from the king's court on account of his leanings toward the party of the barons; yet he con- tinued a justice in eyre. The barons at one time sent him on a judicial errand to redress grievances. Perhaps Bracton had felt the rough edge of the King's tongue. We are told that to William of York, a distinguished predecessor of Bracton, the King said : " I raised you from the depths, you were the scribbler of my writs, a justice and a hireling." Bracton well knew the great patriot Simon de Montf ort, and no doubt sympathized with his cause. We know not