thenceforth in theory their statutory authority, though in reality § 23. there was a steadily increasing tendency to replace them in practice by epitomes. The last successful work of this latter kind was the Hexabiblos of Harmenopulos (1345 A. D.), a 'miserable epitome of epitomes of epitomes'3. As a matter of fact the law set forth in the Hexabiblos was the Roman law of the expiring Eastern Empire. The Hexabiblos, however, survived the rule of the Turks, and in 1835 was clothed with statutory force for the Kingdom of Greece. The history of Roman law in the East is the history of a steady process of decline. The same blight that had fallen on the Empire and the Church had affected the law. What had once been a body full of vital force had shrunk, past recognition, to a mere lifeless form. A different fate was in store for Roman law in Western Europe, where it was destined to enter on a fresh lease of life. § 24. Italy. We have already pointed out (supra, pp. 129, 130) that in the German § 24. kingdoms of Western Europe Roman law-in its pre-Justinian form, of course-remained in force, as far as the Roman population of the provinces was concerned, even after the fall of the Roman Empire. That as a matter of historic fact Roman law continued to exist in Western Europe has been conclusively shown by Savigny in his brilliant treatise on the subject', but its continued existence did not differ in character from the continued existence of the Roman language. That is to say, just as the Latin language, after absorbing a number of Germanic elements, grew into the Romance languages, so Roman law became (in Upper Rhaetia and in the South of France) a barbarized Romance law shorn of all the strength of the classical law, to which indeed it bore but a faint resemblance. 3 See the article, Geschichte u. Quellen des röm. Rechts (by Bruns, revised by Pernice), in Holtzendorff's Encyklopädie der RW., vol. i. (5th ed., 1890) P. 174. Among works which have contributed to our knowledge of the history of Graeco-Roman law, special mention must be made of the numerous writings of E. Zachariae, and more particularly 1 Geschichte des römischen Rechts im § 24. Italy was the only country over which Roman law, in its original form, never completely lost its hold. In Italy the traditions of Roman law lived on, not only among the people, but also among the learned jurists, and by this means the connexion with classical legal literature was maintained. The scientific study of law, like ancient culture in general, of which it was part, never entirely died out in Italy. The schools of law which continued to exist-in Rome, and afterwards (in the eleventh century) at Ravenna-preserved the tradition of the legal teaching of the Roman Empire and, with it, no mean portion of the spirit of Roman jurisprudence". But the scientific jurists of Italy who wrote and taught from the sixth to the eleventh century were out of immediate touch with the law actually in force in their country. They never succeeded in gaining any control over the practical administration of justice. In fact, a complete mastery of so vast a subject as Roman law was beyond their powers. In the main they were satisfied with taking their Roman law from those portions of the authorities which were the easiest to understand, and which, for that reason, contained less valuable matter than the other portions. They showed a preference for the Institutes, on the one hand, and the Novels, on the other, and out of these they were content to put together a summary sketch of Roman law, just as their fellow-jurists were doing at Byzantium about the same time. They were, however, intellectually incapable of coping with the principal part of the Corpus juris, viz. the Digest. And yet it was precisely within the field of the Digest that the great achievement which stands in history to the credit of the Italian jurists was afterwards accomplished. A new force was required in order to free the study of Roman law in Italy from the Byzantine manner and to fill it with fresh life. 2 Much light has been thrown on the literature referred to-as to the value of which opinions differ-by the numerous writings of Fitting (e. g. Über die sogenannte Turiner Institutionenglosse u. den sogenannten Brachylogus, Halle, 1870; Anfänge der Rechtsschule zu Bologna, Berlin, 1888) and by Conrat (writing in opposition to Fitting) in his Geschichte d. Quellen u. Litteratur d. röm. Rechts im früheren Mittelalter, vol. i, Leipzig, 1891. Besides these, reference should be made more particularly to Ficker's Forschungen zur RG. Italiens, vol. iii. (1870) pp. 110 ff., 125 ff., 299 ff., and to Ficker, Über die Entstehungsverhältnisse der Exceptiones Legum Romanarum, Innsbruck, 1886 (as to which see Fitting, ZS. d. Sav. St., vol. vii. pt. 2, p. 27 ff.). It was a singular coincidence that this vitalising force should have § 24. been supplied by the German peoples and by German law, for it was just the extraordinary success of the scientific study of Roman law which, at a subsequent period, threatened German law itself with extinction. The Lombards were distinguished beyond all the other tribes of German nationality by the remarkable degree to which the legal instinct was developed in them. Not only could they boast a body of statute-law, vigorously worked out and clearly enunciated-the Edicts of the Lombard kings and the Capitularies of the Franconian kings-but from an early time they set themselves consciously to the task of applying the text of the statutes in a rational manner. The assessors (judices) of the Royal Court at Pavia became the representatives of a school of German (i. e. Lombardic) law which flourished in the tenth and eleventh centuries. It is to them that we owe the Liber Papiensis, a collection of the edicts and capitularies arranged in chronological order—a kind of Corpus juris Langobardici-to which were added explanatory glossae and formulae for actions. Their labours culminated about the year 1070 A. D. in a complete commentary on the Liber Papiensis called the 'Expositio' a highly creditable achievement to which the contemporary school of Roman law could offer no parallel3. It almost looked as if German law were about to beat Roman law out of the field, not only in practical life, but also as a subject of scientific study. The success of Lombardic jurisprudence was, however, destined to instil fresh life into Roman law. $25. The Glossators. In the second half of the eleventh century the method of the § 25. Lombard jurists was applied in Bologna to the Roman Corpus juris. The success with which the Bolognese School of Glossators worked this method enabled them to restore Roman jurisprudence to fresh The Expositio is discussed by Boretius in the Monum. Germ. Legum, tom. iv. p. lxxxiv sqq. As to the ad ministration of justice among the Lom- § 25. power and dignity and, at the same time, to lay the foundations on which modern German jurisprudence rests. The credit of having founded the School of Glossators has been assigned to Irnerius', who flourished about 1100 A. D. The most distinguished among his successors were the 'quattuor doctores,' Martinus, Bulgarus, Jacobus, and Hugo (who were contemporaries of Frederick Barbarossa) and, in the first half of the thirteenth century, Azo, Accursius, and Odofredus. The jurists of the earlier school of Ravenna (supra, p. 138) had taught Roman law by means of comprehensive epitomes and manuals. The Glossators of Bologna, on the other hand-and it is this that distinguishes them from the teachers of the earlier school 2-adopted the exegetic method practised by the Lombard jurists; that is to say, they dealt with the provisions of the Corpus juris in detail by means of glossae, or explanatory notes appended to the text of the Code. The most fruitful part of the work done alike by the Lombard jurists in dealing with the Liber Papiensis and by the Glossators in explaining the several passages of the Corpus juris consisted in searching out what are known as 'parallel' passages, that is, the various other passages connected with the particular passage under discussion. It is remarkable how much light the Glossators were able by this means to throw on the provisions of Roman law. Their explanations went far deeper than any mere elucidation of the letter of the law; they served to reconcile contradictions and to bring such parts as were mutually related into vital connexion; they took account of the system of Roman law as a whole without neglecting any single detail. The need for a compendious survey of the results achieved gave rise to the so-called 'Summae' which were also apparently modelled on similar works by the Lombard jurists. The strength of the school lay in the before-mentioned glossae. Undeterred by the difficulties of the task, Irnerius and his followers boldly set themselves to analyse the 1 A certain dominus Pepo (who lived about 1070 A.D.) is mentioned as a predecessor of Irnerius; cp. Savigny, G. d. röm. R., vol. iii. p. 427; vol. iv. pp. 6, 7. Irnerius is the subject of a recent work by Besta, L'opera d' Irnerio (2 voll., Torino, 1896), in the second volume of which Irnerius' glossae on the Digestum vetus are published. Irnerius was certainly the first whose work as a glossator achieved a lasting success. Ficker, Forschungen zur RG. Italiens, vol. iii. p. 139 ff. countless provisions of the Corpus juris, and by the use of genuinely § 25. scientific methods they were able to bring to light the wealth of legal treasure that lay embedded there. They accomplished what nobody had accomplished before, for it is to their efforts that the modern world owes its intellectual mastery over the vast materials of the Corpus juris. By dint of unremitting labour they succeeded in bringing out the full significance of the priceless work contained in the Digest, and in revealing the noble fabric of Roman law not merely in separate sections, but as a great whole. The Glossators re-discovered the Digest in the sense that they brought home its meaning-and, with it, the meaning of Roman jurisprudence-to the minds of men once more, and at the same time, by means of a magnificent exegetical apparatus, they secured all future generations in the enjoyment of the fruits of their labours. What the Glossators have thus accomplished is work done once and for all, and it entitles the School of Bologna to rank for all time to come as one of the mightiest forces in the history of Roman law. The 'Glossa ordinaria' of Accursius (about 1250 A. D.), in which the results achieved by the Glossators were finally and comprehensively summed up, marked the completion of the special work of their school: there is necessarily a point at which a scientific process working exclusively on exegetic lines must come to an end. The Glossators had succeeded in showing once more what the provisions of pure Roman law, of the Corpus juris, actually were, so far as it was possible to do so by a method of enquiry and explanation which confined itself strictly to the contents of the code itself. But in order to place pure Roman law in a position to exercise an influence on practical life a mere re-discovery of its provisions was not sufficient. It would be the greatest mistake to suppose that any sudden reform in the application of law took place at the time of the Glossators. In Italy as elsewhere the law continued for the present to be administered on the old lines, and the importance of the results effected by the Glossators was at first rather theoretical than practical. The law of the Corpus juris had to undergo 3 The archives of the Italian Courts do not show any traces of the effects of the School of Bologna till towards the |