possessed. These municipal judges were chosen from among the
citizens, and the succession to offices was usually so rapid, that
almost every freeman might expect in his turn to partake in the public
government, and consequently in the administration of justice. The
latter had always indeed been exercised in the sight of the people by
the count and his assessors under the Lombard and Carlovingian
sovereigns; but the laws were rude, the proceedings tumultuary, and the
decisions perverted by violence. The spirit of liberty begot a stronger
sense of right; and right, it was soon perceived, could only be secured
by a common standard. Magistrates holding temporary offices, and little
elevated in those simple times above the citizens among whom they were
to return, could only satisfy the suitors, and those who surrounded
their tribunal, by proving the conformity of their sentences to
acknowledged authorities. And the practice of alleging reasons in giving
judgment would of itself introduce some uniformity of decision and some
adherence to great rules of justice in the most arbitrary tribunals;
while, on the other hand, those of a free country lose part of their
title to respect, and of their tendency to maintain right, whenever,
either in civil or criminal questions, the mere sentence of a judge is
pronounced without explanation of its motives.

The fame of this renovated jurisprudence spread very rapidly from Italy
over other parts of Europe. Students flocked from all parts of Bologna;
and some eminent masters of that school repeated its lessons in distant
countries. One of these, Placentinus, explained the Digest at Montpelier
before the end of the twelfth century; and the collection of Justinian
soon came to supersede the Theodosian code in the dominions of
Toulouse.[801] Its study continued to flourish in the universities of
both these cities; and hence the Roman law, as it is exhibited in the
system of Justinian, became the rule of all tribunals in the southern
provinces of France. Its authority in Spain is equally great, or at
least is only disputed by that of the canonists;[802] and it forms the
acknowledged basis of decision in all the Germanic tribunals, sparingly
modified by the ancient feudal customaries, which the jurists of the
empire reduce within narrow bounds.[803] In the northern parts of
France, where the legal standard was sought in local customs, the civil
law met naturally with less regard. But the code of