be till the time of the reformation, entirely under the influence of the popiſh clergy; (ſir John Maſon the firſt proteſtant, being alſo the firſt lay, chancellor of Oxford) this will lead us to perceive the reaſon, why the ſtudy of the Roman laws was in thoſe days of bigotry[1] purſued with ſuch alacrity in theſe ſeats of learning; and why the common law was entirely deſpiſed, and eſteemed little better than heretical.
And, ſince the reformation, many cauſes have conſpired to prevent it’s becoming a part of academical education. As, firſt, long uſage and eſtabliſhed cuſtom; which, as in every thing elſe, ſo eſpecially in the forms of ſcholaſtic exerciſe, have juſtly great weight and authority. Secondly, the real intrinſic merit of the civil law, conſidered upon the footing of reaſon and not of obligation, which was well known to the inſtructors of our youth; and their total ignorance of the merit of the common law, though it’s equal at leaſt, and perhaps an improvement on the other. But the principal reaſon of all, that has hindered the introduction of this branch of learning, is, that the ſtudy of the common law, being baniſhed 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 uſage and eſtabliſhed cuſtom, of ignorance in the laws of the land, begin now to be thought unreaſonable; and as by this means the merit of thoſe
- ↑ There cannot be a ſtronger inſtance of the abſurd and ſuperſtitious veneration that was paid to theſe laws, than that the moſt learned writers of the times thought they could not form a perfect character, even of the bleſſed virgin, without making her a civilian and a canoniſt. Which Albertus Magnus, the renowned dominican doctor of the thirteenth century, thus proves in his Summa de laudibus chriſtiferae virginis (divinum magis quam humanum opus) qu. 23. §. 5. “Item quod jura civilia, & leges, & decreta ſcivit in ſummo, probatur hoc modo; ſapientia advocati manifeſtatur in tribus; unum, quod obtineat omnia contra judicem juſtum & ſapientem; ſecundo, quod contra adverſarium aſtutum & ſagacem; tertio, quod in cauſa deſperata: ſed beatiſſima virgo, contra judicem ſapientiſſimum, Dominum; contra adverſarium callidiſſimum, dyabolum; in cauſa noſtra deſperata; ſententiam optatam obtinuit.” To which an eminent franciſcan, two centuries afterwards, Bernardinus de Buſti (Mariale, part. 4 ſerm. 9.) very gravely ſubjoins this note. “Nec videtur incongruum mulieres habere peritiam juris. Legitur enim de uxore Joannis Andreae gloſſatoris, quod tantam peritiam in utroque jure habuit, ut publice in ſcholis legere auſa ſit.”
