f the civil law in the
argument of Parisian advocates.

[805] Crevier, Hist. de l'Universite de Paris, t. i. p. 316; t. ii. p.
275.

[806] Johan. Salisburiensis, apud Selden ad Fletam, p. 1082.

[807] Selden, ubi supra, p. 1095-1104. This passage is worthy of
attention. Yet, notwithstanding Selden's authority, I am not satisfied
that he has not extenuated the effect of Bracton's predilection for the
maxims of Roman jurisprudence. No early lawyer has contributed so much
to form our own system as Bracton; and if his definitions and rules are
sometimes borrowed from the civilians, as all admit, our common law may
have indirectly received greater modification from that influence, than
its professors were ready to acknowledge, or even than they knew. A full
view of this subject is still, I think, a desideratum in the history of
English law, which it would illustrate in a very interesting manner.

[808] Duck, De Usu Juris Civilis, 1. i. c. 87.

[809] Gravina, Origines Juris Civilis, p. 196.

[810] Those who feel some curiosity about the civilians of the middle
ages will find a concise and elegant account in Gravina, De Origine
Juris Civilis, p. 166-206. (Lips. 1708.) Tiraboschi contains perhaps
more information; but his prolixity is very wearisome. Besides this
fault, it is evident that Tiraboschi knew very little of law, and had
not read the civilians of whom he treats; whereas Gravina discusses
their merits not only with legal knowledge, but with an acuteness of
criticism which, to say the truth, Tiraboschi never shows except on a
date or a name.

[The civil lawyers of the mediaeval period are not at all forgotten on
the continent, as the great work of Savigny, History of Roman Law in the
Middle Ages, sufficiently proves. It is certain that the civil law must
always be studied in Europe, nor ought the new codes to supersede it,
seeing they are in great measure derived from its fountain; though I
have heard that it is less regarded in France than formerly. In my
earlier editions I depreciated the study of the civil law too much, and
with too exclusive an attention to English notions.]

[811] Ante ipsum dominum Carolum regem in Gallia nullum fuit studium
liberalium artium. Monachus Engolismensis, apud Launoy, De Scholis per
occidentem instauratis, p. 5. See too Histoire Litteraire de la France,
t. iv. p. 1. "Studia liberalium artium" in this passage, must be
understood to exclude literature, commonly so called, but n