to the emperor as the origin of power, rights, and honor. They
adopted this standpoint for the kings of the new dynastic states
and, in the might of the Roman law, they established royal
absolutism, which was unfavorable to the church and the feudal
nobles. They found their allies in the cities which loved written
law, institutions, and defined powers. Stubbs[101] regards the
form of the Statute of Westminster (1275) as a proof that the
lawyers, who "were at this time getting a firm grasp on the law
of England," were introducing the principle that the king could
enact by his own authority. The spirit of the Roman law was
pitiless to peasants and artisans, that is, to all who were, or
were to be made, unfree. The Norman laws depressed the Saxon
ceorl to a slave.[102] In similar manner they came into war with
all Teutonic mores which contained popular rights and primary
freedom. Stammler[103] denies that the Roman law, in spite of
lawyers and ecclesiastics, ever entered into the flesh and blood
of the German people. That is to say, it never displaced
completely their national mores. The case of the property of
married persons is offered as a case in which the German mores
were never overcome.[104] A compromise was struck between the
ancient mores and the new ways, which the Roman Catholic religion
approved.

+88. Variability.+ No less remarkable than the persistency of the mores
is their changeableness and variation. There is here an interesting
parallel to heredity and variation in the organic world, even though the
parallel has no significance. Variation in the mores is due to the fact
that children do not perpetuate the mores just as they received them.
The father dies, and the son whom he has educated, even if he continues
the ritual and repeats the formulae, does not think and feel the same
ideas and sentiments as his father. The observance of Sunday; the mode
of treating parents, children, servants, and wives or husbands;
holidays; amusements; arts of luxury; marriage and divorce; wine
drinking,--are matters in regard to which it is easy to note changes in
the mores from generation to generation, in our own times. Even in Asia,
when a long period of time is taken into account, changes in the mores
are perceptible. The mores change because conditions and interests
change. It is found that dogmas and maxims which have been current do
not verify; that