itutions unknown in Germany are inapplicable here,
though glossed. V. The Roman law has but slight application to such
objects and transactions as were unknown to the Romans and are of purely
Germanic origin. VI. With the limitations above enumerated the Roman law
has been adopted as a whole and not in detached parts.

In England Roman law has had practically no effect. In the year 1149 a
Lombard jurist, Vacarius, lectured on it at Oxford; but there were no
results. Canon law is, of course, a force to be reckoned with in Britain
as on the Continent.

Before we enter the question of women's rights during the Middle Ages,
we must take a general survey of the character of that period; for
obviously we cannot understand its legislation without some idea of the
background of social, political, and intellectual life. In the first
place, then, the Church was everywhere triumphant and its ideals
governed legislation completely on such matters as marriage. The civil
law of Rome, as drawn up first by the epitomisers and later studied more
carefully at Bologna, served to indicate general principles in cases to
which canon law did not apply; but there was little jurisdiction in
which the powers ecclesiastical could not contrive to take a hand. At
the same time Germanic ideals and customs continued a powerful force.
For a long time after the partition of the vast empire of Charlemagne
government was in a state of chaos and transition from which eventually
the various distinct states arose. A struggle between kings and nobles
for supremacy dragged along for many generations; and as during that
contest each feudal lord was master in his own domain, there was no
consistent code of laws for all countries or, indeed, for the same
country. Yet the character of the age determined in a general way the
spirit that dictated all laws. Society rested on a military and
aristocratic basis, and when the ability to wield arms is essential to
maintain one's rights, the position of women will be affected by that
fact. Beginning with the twelfth century city life began to exert a
political influence; and this, again, did not fail to have an effect on
the status of women. Of any participation of women in intellectual life
there could be no question until the Renaissance, although we do meet
here and there with isolated exceptions, a few ladies of high degree
like Roswitha of Gandersheim and Hadwig, Duchess of Swabia, niece of
Otto the Great, and Heloi