Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/37

§. 1. be till the time of the reformation, entirely under the influence of the popih clergy; (ir John Maon the firt protetant, being alo the firt lay, chancellor of Oxford) this will lead us to perceive the reaon, why the tudy of the Roman laws was in thoe days of bigotry purued with uch alacrity in thee eats of learning; and why the common law was entirely depied, and eteemed little better than heretical.

ince the reformation, many caues have conpired to prevent it’s becoming a part of academical education. As, firt, long uage and etablihed cutom; which, as in every thing ele, o epecially in the forms of cholatic exercie, have jutly great weight and authority. Secondly, the real intrinic merit of the civil law, conidered upon the footing of reaon and not of obligation, which was well known to the intructors of our youth; and their total ignorance of the merit of the common law, though it’s equal at leat, and perhaps an improvement on the other. But the principal reaon of all, that has hindered the introduction of this branch of learning, is, that the tudy of the common law, being banihed from hence in the times of popery, has fallen into a quite different chanel, and has hitherto been wholly cultivated in another place. But as this long uage and etablihed cutom, of ignorance in the laws of the land, begin now to be thought unreaonable; and as by this means the merit of thoe laws