Page:Select historical documents of the Middle Ages.djvu/21

 = Select Historical Documents. =

Introduction.
he following short notes concerning the documents here translated, are not intended in any way to be exhaustive. They will fully answer their purpose if they prove to be suggestive, if they seem to make the pieces they refer to desirable and interesting reading. The works of Gneist and Stubbs will furnish all the general knowledge that is necessary as a ground work.

No. I., the laws of William the Conqueror, is probably the sum and substance of all the enactments made by that sovereign. Especially interesting are the reference in § 6 to the wager of battle — the first mention of that institu- tion in English law — and the law against capital punish- ment in § 10. Important also is the act dividing the spiritual from the temporal courts — an act which tended to increase the independence of the clergy.

No. II., the bull of pope Adrian IV., long has been, and still is, an apple of discord among scholars. Is it a genuine document or not? The question is a weighty one, for the transaction it bears witness to was the first step towards the annexation of Ireland to England — an annexation which really took place, after a warlike expedition