Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/443

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Zouche
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Zouche

mend it too much.’ Anthony Wood says that Zouche was ‘an exact artist, a subtile logician, expert historian, and for the knowledge in, and practice of, the civil law, the chief person of his time; as his works, much esteemed beyond the seas (where several of them are reprinted), partly testify. He was so well vers'd also in the statutes of the university, and controversies between the members thereof and the city, that none after Twyne's death went beyond him. As his birth was noble, so was his behaviour and discourse, and as personable and handsome, so naturally sweet, pleasing, and affable. The truth is there was nothing wanting but a froward spirit for his advancement; but the interruption of the times, which silenc'd his profession, would have given a stop to his rise had he been of another disposition.’ Zouche was, in fact, a good specimen of the sort of civil lawyer who was produced at Oxford, while the thorough drill of the old system of legal training, as revived by the impulse given to it by the Italian refugee, Alberico Gentili, still lasted on. Zouche and his junior contemporary, Arthur Duck [q. v.], both pupils of Budden, the successor of Gentili in the regius professorship, are the last of the old race of Oxford civilians whose writings still enjoy a European reputation.

The literary activity of Zouche, taking into account his labours in other directions, was as surprising in amount as it was varied in character. His first, and somewhat juvenile, publication (No. 1 in the list which follows) was a poem, descriptive of Europe, Asia, and Africa, after the manner of the ‘Periegesis’ of Dionysius. In a euphuistic preface the author apologises for his poetical venture, having known some ‘whose credit hath challenged respect, exceeding strong in prejudice against the composing and reading such trifles.’ In maturer years Zouche attempted a play (No. 6), if it be rightly ascribed to him, intended to be performed before an academical audience, fitted indeed for no other, since the dramatis personæ are such bloodless abstractions as ‘Fallacy,’ ‘Proposition,’ and ‘Ambiguity.’ Quite late in life he produced a little book of logical, rhetorical, and ethical maxims (No. 14). Most of Zouche's writings were, however, of a professional character. Of these several were handbooks for disputations at the university (Nos. 11, 12, 15), and two were of a polemical cast (Nos. 13, 16). But his most important achievement was the mapping out of the whole field of law, and the subsequent examination in detail of its various departments. The ‘Elementa Jurisprudentiæ’ (No. 2), although in terminology wholly, and in substance mainly, a setting forth of Roman law, is intended to supply a generally applicable scheme of legal science, distributed under the two main heads of ‘Jus’ and ‘Judicium’ (or ‘Rights’ and ‘Remedies’). In accordance with the method which he had thus prescribed to himself, Zouche afterwards dealt, in a series of monographs, with the several topics of ‘feudal,’ ‘sacred,’ ‘maritime,’ ‘military,’ and ‘fecial’ law (Nos. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10). His was essentially a logical mind, and the scheme is consistently and persistently carried out. The treatise on Jus feciale is deserving of especial mention as the first work which exhibits the law of nations as a well-ordered system, in which the ‘Jus belli’ is relegated to a duly subordinate position (‘Ist als das erste Lehrbuch des gesammten Völkerrechts anzusehen,’ Von Ompteda, Litteratur des Völkerrechts, 1785; ‘Das erste eigentliche Lehrbuch des Völkerrechts,’ von Kaltenborn, Kritik des Völkerrechts, 1847). It must also be remembered that it was the second title of this work, Jus inter gentes, which suggested to Bentham the happily coined phrase ‘international law.’

The following is a list of the works written by or attributed to Zouche: 1. ‘The Dove, or Passages of Cosmography,’ London, 1613, 8vo, dedicated to Edward lord Zouche by his kinsman, the author; reprinted, with notes and a memoir of the author, by his descendant, Richard Walker, B.D., 1839, 8vo. 2. ‘Elementa Jurisprudentiæ, definitionibus, regulis et sententiis selectioribus Juris Civilis illustrata,’ Oxford, 1629, 8vo; Leyden, 1653, 12mo, together with Nos. 4 and 5; Oxford, 1636, 4to, together with Nos. 7, 8, and 9; Leyden and Amsterdam, 1652, 12mo; and The Hague, 1665. 3. ‘Descriptio Juris et Judicii feudalis, secundum consuetudines Mediolani et Normanniæ, pro introductione ad Jurisprudentiam Anglicanam,’ Oxford, 1634, 12mo. 4. ‘Descriptio Juris et Judicii temporalis, secundum consuetudines feudales et Normannicas,’ with Nos. 2 and 5, Oxford, 1636, 4to. 5. ‘Descriptio Juris et Judicii ecclesiastici, secundum canones et constitutiones Anglicanas,’ together with Nos. 2 and 4, Oxford, 1636, 4to. Nos. 4 and 5 were reprinted with R. Mocket's ‘Tractatus de politia ecclesiæ Anglicanæ,’ London, 1683, 8vo. 6. ‘The Sophister, a comedy,’ London, 1639, 4to, anon., but ascribed by an old manuscript note in the Bodleian copy to Zouche; so also by most authorities on the drama, though not by G. Langbaine. 7. ‘Descriptio Juris et Judicii sacri, ad quam leges quæ religionem et piam