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THE HISTORY OF
ENGLISH LAW
BEFORE THE TIME
OF EDWARD I
This book is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a foundation established to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.
The cuneiform inscription that serves as our logo and as a design element in Liberty Fund books is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom” (amagi), or “liberty.” It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 B.C. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash.
This is the second edition of The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, which was published in 1898 by Cambridge University Press. The first edition was published in 1895 by Cambridge University Press. This Liberty Fund eBook edition does not include the “Select Bibliography and Notes,” by Professor S. F. C. Milsom, which was originally published in Cambridge University Press’s 1968 reissue of The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I and which is included in the Liberty Fund print edition.
Margin notes in the print edition have been inserted into the text of this eBook edition.
This eBook edition published in 2012.
eBook ISBN: E-PUB 978-1-61487-177-4
Contents
Preface to the Second Edition,
Sketch of Early English Legal History
CHAPTER I. The Dark Age in Legal History
The difficulty of beginning, Proposed retrospect, The classical age of Roman law, The beginnings of ecclesiastical law, THIRD CENTURY. Decline of Roman law, FOURTH CENTURY. Church and State, FIFTH CENTURY. The Theodosian Code, Laws of Euric, SIXTH CENTURY. The century of Justinian, The Lex Salica, The Lex Ribuaria, and Lex Burgundionum, The Lex Romana Burgundionum, The Lex Romana Visigothorum, Importance of The Breviary, The Edict of Theoderic, The Dionysian collection of canons, Justinian’s books, Justinian and Italy, Laws of Æthelbert, SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES. Germanic laws, System of personal laws, The vulgar Roman law, The latent Digest, The capitularies, Growth of canon law, NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES. The false Isidore, The forged capitularies, Church and State, The darkest age, Legislation in England, England and the Continent, ELEVENTH CENTURY. The Pavian law-school, The new birth of Roman law, The recovered Digest, The influence of Bolognese jurisprudence
Imperfection of written records of early Germanic law, Anglo-Saxon dooms and custumals, Anglo-Saxon land-books, Survey of Anglo-Saxon institutions, Personal conditions: lordship, The family, Ranks: ceorl, eorl, gesíð, Thegn, Other distinctions, Privileges of the clergy,
