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Sir John Davies, the Ancient Constitution, and Civil Law1

Part of: Retrospect: The Ancient Constitution and the Languages of Political Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Hans S. Pawlisch
Hans S. Pawlisch
Affiliation:
Institute for Historical Research, London
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Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , September 1980 , pp. 689 - 702
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

References

2 SirDavies, John, Le primer report des cases in les courts del roy (Dublin, 1615)Google Scholar. There is an excellent English translation: A report of cases and matters in law resolved and abridged in the king's courts in Ireland (Dublin, 1762)Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as Irish reports.

3 Pocock, J. G. A., The ancient constituion and feudal law (Bath, 1974), p. 90Google Scholar.

4 Levack, Brian, The civil lawyers in England 1603–41. (Oxford, 1973), pp. 145–6Google Scholar.

5 Abbott, L. W., Law reporting in England, 1485–1585 (London, 1973), pp. 190–1Google Scholar.

6 The reports of Sir Edward Coke (London, 1738)Google Scholar; 3 Co. Rep. Pref. p. xxb.

7 Bland, D. S., ‘Rhetoric and the law student in sixteenth-century England’, Studies in Philology, LIV (1957), 498–508Google Scholar; Schoeck, R. J., ‘Rhetoric and law in sixteenth-century England’, Studies in Philology, L, (1953), 119–27Google Scholar; Knafla, Louis, ‘The matriculation revolution and education at the Inns of Court in renaissance England’, Tudor men and institutions, ed., Slavin, A. J. (Baton Rouge, 1972), p. 252Google Scholar; also ‘The law studies of an Elizabethan student’, Huntington Library Quarterly, XXXII (1969), 227, 231–4Google Scholar.

8 Knafla, L., Law and politics in Jacobean England (Cambridge, 1977), p. 49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Fulbecke, W., Directive or preparative to the study of the law (London, 1602), pp. 26–9Google Scholar.

10 For Dodderidge and Whitelock see Foss, E., A biographical dictionary of the judges of England (London, 1870), pp. 223, 721–2Google Scholar.

11 Maitland, F. W., Select passages from the works of Bracton and Azo: Seldon Society, VIII (1894), xxxGoogle Scholar.

12 See Ulpian on ius naturale in D. 1. 1. 1. 3; Inst. 1. 2. 2. Natural law was identified with the instincts all men share with other creatures. The law of nations or ius gentium was seen as a component part of the natural law, but was for the most part used interchangeably with natural law. See Thomas, J. A. C., Textbook of Roman law (New York, 1976), pp. 62–5Google Scholar.

13 Prothero, G. W., Select statutes and other constitutional documents illustrative of the reigns of Elizabeth and James I (Oxford, 1898), pp. 351–2Google Scholar; Gardiner, S. R., Parliamentary debates in 1610, Camden Society LXXXI (1867), 89, 90 and 119Google Scholar.

14 B. M. Harl. MS 278, fos. 411a–412a, 418–b–422 b.

15 P.R.O. Wards 15.6.1, as cited in Russell, C., The crisis of parliaments, 1509–1660 (Oxford, 1977). P. 255Google Scholar.

16 House of Lords journal, III, 758.

17 I am indebted to Professor Brian Levack for calling my attention to this manuscript, Harl. MS 5220, fo. 4b.

18 Craig, T., De unione regnorum Brittanniae tractatus, Scottish History Society, LX (1909), 312,326–7Google Scholar. Also Stein, Peter, ‘The influence of Roman law in the law of Scotland’, Juridical Review, new series (1962–1963), p. 219Google Scholar.

19 Donahue, Charles, ‘The civil law in England’, Yale Law Journal, LXXXIV (1974), 180Google Scholar.

20 Maitland, F. W., English law and the renaissance (Cambridge, 1901)Google Scholar; see also McIlwain, C. H., The political works of James I (Cambridge, Mass., 1918), pp. xl–xliGoogle Scholar.

21 Maitland's reception thesis was thoroughly demolished in 1966 by ProfessorThome, . See ‘English law and the renaissance’ in La storia del diritto nel quiadro delle scienza storiche (Florence, 1966), pp. 437–45Google Scholar.

22 Elton, G. R., ‘The political creed of Thomas Cromwell’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser. (1965), p. 78Google Scholar.

23 Cowell, John, The Interpreter (Cambridge, 1607)Google Scholar; see especially ‘Prerogative of the king’; Gentili, A., Regales disputationes ires: id est de potestate regis absoluta (London, 1605), pp. 3–58Google Scholar.

24 For Bacon see An offer to the king of a digest to be made of the laws of England, in Spedding, , Baton's works, VII, 358–62Google Scholar. See also his Elements of the common lawes of England containing a collection of some principall rules and maxims of the common law, with their latitude and extent (London, 1630), p. 139Google Scholar. Bacon's influence can be seen in James I's proposal for law reform. See Mcllwain, C. H., The political works of James I, pp. 292–3, 311–12, 332Google Scholar; also Veall, D., The popular movement for law reform, 1640–1660 (Oxford, 1970), pp. 65–74Google Scholar. See also Levack, Brian, ‘The proposed union of English law and Scots law in the seventeenth century’, The Juridical Review, part 2 (1975), pp. 103–10Google Scholar.

25 Sir Edward Coke, Reports, II, preface, fos. vii and viii.

26 Coke, , Institutes, IIGoogle Scholar, proeme, p. vi.

27 Thorne, S. E., A catalogue of the library of Sir Edward Coke (New Haven, 1950), pp. 38–41Google Scholar.

28 Scrutton, T. E., ‘Roman law influences in Chancery, Church Courts, Admiralty and Law Merchant’ in Select essays in Anglo-American legal history (Cambridge, 1907), I, 209–10Google Scholar.

29 Stein, Peter, Regulae iuris (Edinburgh, 1974), p. 101Google Scholar.

30 Spedding, , Bacon's works, XIII, 65Google Scholar.

31 Knafla, Lewis, Law and politics in Jacobean England (Cambridge, 1977), p. 298CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Holliday, John, The life of William late earl of Mansfield (London, 1797), p. 90Google Scholar.

33 Bingham, Peregrine, Reports of cases argued and determined in the Court of Common Pleas, 1822–34, 10 vols. (London, 1834), II, 296Google Scholar; Stephen, James, A history of the criminal law of England, 3 vols. (London, 1883), II, 205Google Scholar.

34 Of the several editions of the reports, the introduction may only be found in: SirDavies, John, Le primer report des cases in les courts del roy (Dublin, 1615)Google Scholar and Les reports des cases & matters in ley resolve & adjudged in les courts del roy en Irland (London, 1674)Google Scholar.

35 Davies, Le primer report, fo. 6b.

36 Davies, op. cit. fos. 5a–5b. For Gomez see Schulte, J. F., Die Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des Canonischen Rechts (Stuttgart, 1880), III, 554Google Scholar. An Irish civilian picked up the cudgel in defence of his profession: see Clerke, William, An epitome of certaine late aspersions cast at civilians, the civil and ecclesiaslicall laws, the courtes christian, and at bishops and their chancellors (Dublin, 1631), p. 6Google Scholar.

37 There are $$98 statute citations (English and Irish) and 85 Roman and canon law citations.

38 Carte MSS 62, fos. 590a–590b; Wood, A., Athenae oxomiensis (London, 1691), pp. 430–2Google Scholar; Ashton, T., ‘Oxford's medieval alumni’, Past and Present, LXXIV (1977), 13–16Google Scholar.

39 In the Case of Commendams, for example, Davies cites materials from the library of New College. See Irish reports, pp. 193, 195.

40 For Merula see Wessels, J. W., History of Roman Dutch law (Grahamstown, 1908), p. 234Google Scholar.

41 Bodleian Library D'Orville MSS, 52, fos. 49–50; B.M. Cotton MS Julius C.v, fo. 49. It has also been suggested that Davies may have accompanied one of the expeditions to the isles; Finklepearl, P., John Marston of the Middle Temple (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), pp. 50–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Yale, D. E. C., ‘Notes on the jurisdiction of the Admiralty in Ireland’, Irish Jurist III (1968), 146–62Google Scholar. See also Archbishop Usher's treatise on the ‘Reception of the imperial laws in Ireland’, Bodleian Library, Tanner MSS 458 fo. 21a; Delaney, V. T. H., ‘A note on the history of legal education in Ireland’, Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, XI (1955), 217Google Scholar. K. W. Nicholls has shown that the municipal code of Galway employed certain aspects of Roman law: see his Gaelic and Gaelicized Ireland in the middle ages (Dublin, 1972), p. 49Google Scholar. In 1578 the Jesuit Edmund Campion, while visiting the recorder of Dublin – Sir Richard Stanyhurst – described certain schools in Gaelic districts where students memorized Justinian's Institutes: Campion, E. and Hamner, M., Two histories of Ireland (Dublin, 1633), p. 18Google Scholar. In 1609, the classical training of the professional scholars surprised even Davies, who remarked: ‘for the jurors, being fifteen in number, thirteen spake good Latin, and that very readily’ (SP/63/227/fo. 94a). In 1608 Leighe, John, the high sheriff of Tyrone, complained that legal matters were being settled in his district by ‘Breghans or judges according to the rule of the Popish canons’ (Cal. Car., 1603–24, pp. 30–1)Google Scholar.

43 Sutherland, D., ‘Conquest and law’, Studia Gratiana, XV (1972), 33–51Google Scholar; The origin of this tradition is of course in the ius gentium of the classical Roman law. The notion that a violent conquest could generate just title may be found in the following selections from Justinian's corpus: D.11.7.36; D.41.2.18.4; D. 41.2.1.1; D.49.15.4; Inst. 2.1.17; see also the marginal gloss on each of the above in Digestum vetus seu pandectorum iuris civilis commentariis accursii & multorum insuper aliorum tam veterum (Lugduni, 1569)Google Scholar. It is interesting to note that the medieval Book of feuds defines a conquest feud as superior to any held by succession: The jus feudale by Thomas Craig (Edinburgh, 1934), I, 164Google Scholar.

44 Scott, S. P. (ed.), Hugo Grotius, De iure belli et pacis (Indianapolis, 1926)Google Scholar, Bk.3.6.11.1; Bk.3.6.4.1; Gentili, Alberico, De iure belli libri tres (Oxford, 1933), II, 307, 381, 385Google Scholar; Zouche, Richard, luris et iudicii fecialis, sive iuris inter gentes et quaestionam de eodem explicatio (Washington, 1921), p. 138Google Scholar. It is interesting to note that Edmund Borlase, an Irish polemicist, grounded an English title to Ireland by right of conquest ‘as Grotius in his excellent piece, De Iure Belli & Pacis notably well argues’: Borlase, Edmund, The reduction of Ireland to the crown of England (London, 1675), pp. A2–A3Google Scholar.

45 Finglas, Patrick, ‘A breviatc of the getting of Ireland and the decaie of the same’, in Harris, W., (ed.), Hibernia, or some antient pieces relating to Ireland, never hitherto made publick (Dublin, 1747), p. 88Google Scholar.

46 L & P, Henry VIII, VII, 1211; L & P Henry VIII, VIII, 527; SP Henry VIII, 11, 341–2. For a general discussion see Edwards, R. D., ‘The Irish Reformation parliament of Henry VIII, 1536–37’, Historical Studies, VI (1968), 61Google Scholar. Dr Brendan Bradshaw has elucidated further the development of Henrician religious policy: see ‘The opposition to the ecclesiastical legislation in the Irish Reformation parliament’, Irish Historical Studies, XVI (1969), 285–303Google Scholar.

47 B.M. Harl. MS 35, fo. 197b.

48 Coke, , Reports, VII, 30, 38–9Google Scholar; Fourth institute, p. 559; Knafla, L., Law and politics in Jacobean England, p. 232Google Scholar; Davies, , Reports, pp. 110–14Google Scholar.

49 Blackstone explicitly states that Ireland's status is directly related to the law and right of conquest. See Blackstone, William, Commentaries on the law of England in four books (Oxford, 1763), I, 100Google Scholar.

50 Donaldson, A. G., ‘The application in Ireland of English and British legislation made before 1801’ (Queen's University, Belfast: unpublished thesis, 1952), pp. 321–3Google Scholar.

51 Levack, Brian, Civil lawyers, pp. 145–6Google Scholar.

52 25 H. VIII, c. 19; 27 H. VIII, c. 15 and c. 20; 35 H. VIII, c. 16; Logan, D., ‘The Henrician canons’, Bulletin of the Institute for Historical Research, XLVII (1974), 99–103CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

53 Spalding, J., ‘The Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum of 1552 and the furthering of discipline in England’, Church History, XXXIX (1970), 162–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 Stubbs, William, ‘The history of the canon law in England’, Select essays in Anglo-American legal history (Cambridge, 1907), I, 263–5Google Scholar; Seventeen lectures on the study of medieval and modern history (Oxford, 1900), pp. 354–6Google Scholar; also his introduction to Report of the commissioners, the constitution and working of the Ecclesiastical Courts (London, 1883), pp. 24–5Google Scholar; Gray, J. W., ‘Canon law in England: some reflections on the Stubbs Maitland controversy’, Studies in Church History, II (1966), 48–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

55 Davies, , Irish reports, pp. 185–229Google Scholar. The case dealt with a dispute between a local incumbent, Cyprian Horsefall, and a royal appointee, Robert Wale, to a vicarage in the diocease of Ossory: Ware, James, The history and antiquities of Ireland, trans, by Harris, Richard (Dublin, 1764), I, 419Google Scholar; Irish Fiants 4256 and 6706.

56 Davies argued that the Pope's decretals were never entirely received in any European country outside the Pope's temporal authority. In other words, England would only use those canons which ‘by such acceptance and usage obtained the force of laws in such particular realm of state and became part of the ecclesiastical law of such nation’. Irish reports, p. 196.

57 Davies, , Irish reports, pp. 1–17Google Scholar.

58 SP/63/234/fo. 140a; SP/63/234/fo. 142a. The difficulty with procurations seems to have troubled Davies for several years. See his letter to Salisbury concerning Beeston's Case in 1608 (SP/63/223/fo. 122a; CSPI, 1606–8, p. 436); For the litigants in Davies' Reports, see Irish Fiants, 4094, 5593 and 6797. The Case of Proxies represents one illustration of a general attempt to restore the church to its patrimony. See Phillips, W. A., The history of the church of Ireland From the earliest times to the present day (Oxford, 1933), II, 498–500Google Scholar.

59 Lancelloti, Joannes Paulus, Institutiones iuris canonici, quibus ius pontificum singulari methodo libris quatuor combrenditure (Lovanni, 1578), pp. 406–7Google Scholar; Davies, , Reports, pp. 5, 7, 17Google Scholar. For biographical details on Lancelloti see. Schulte, J. F., Die Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des Canonischen Rechts (Stuttgart, 1880), III, 451Google Scholar and Cicognani, A. G., Canon Law (Westminster, 1949), p. 320Google Scholar; de Chassaneux, Barthélemy, Catalogus gloriae mundi (Lugduni, 1546), p. 119Google Scholar. For Chassaneux see Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne (Paris, 1844), VII, 699–700Google Scholar. I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr Richard Fraher of Harvard University who assisted me with identifying these canon law citations.

60 Godolphin, John, Repertorium canonicum or an abridgment of the ecclesiastical laws (London, 1678), pp. 75–9Google Scholar.

61 Like the Case of Proxies, the Case of the Dean and Chapter of Femes represents one illustration of a general programme to recover the patrimony of the church. For the property in question see Fiants 6471, 6237 and 6243; Ware, , op. cit. I, 446–8Google Scholar; Lancelloti, , op. cit. pp. 25 and 28Google Scholar; de Tudeschi, Nicholas, Omnia quae extant commentaria primae partis in primum & decretalium librum (Venice, 1588), VI, 99–100Google Scholar; Davies, , Irish reports, pp. 129–32Google Scholar. For Tudeschi see Schulte, J. F., op. cit. II, 312–13Google Scholar and Cicognani, A. G., op. cit. p. 336Google Scholar.

62 Gibson, Edmund, Codex juris ecclesastici anglicani or the statute, constitutions canons and rubricks articles of the Church of England (London, 1713), p. 781Google Scholar.

63 Maitland, F. W., Roman canon law in the Church of England (London, 1898), pp. 1–50Google Scholar. This was elaborated in a second chapter entitled ‘Church, state and decretals’, pp. 51–99.

64 Davies, , Reports, 164–5Google Scholar; de Ubaldis, Baldus, Opera omnia (Venice, 1577), V, 79Google Scholar. For Baldus see Ullmann, Walter, Law and politics in the middle ages (London, 1975), pp. 111–12Google Scholar.

65 Nat. Lib. Dublin, MS 11,044. This document was found in a tin box of roughly 300 unfoliated papers, most of which date after 1660.

66 Davies, , Reports, p. 158Google Scholar.

67 Cujas, Jacques, Corporis iuris civilis (Amsterdam, 1681), II, 741Google Scholar; Choppinus, Renattus, De domanio Franciae (Frankfurt, 1701), pp. 111–15Google Scholar. For biographical details on Cujas see Kelley, D. H., Foundations of modern historical scholarship: language, law and history, in the French renaissance (New York, 1970), pp. 112–15Google Scholar. For Choppinus see Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne (Paris, 1844), VIII, 199Google Scholar.

68 Budelius, René, De monetis et re nummaria (Köln, 1591)Google Scholar. For Budelius see Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, VI, 112.

69 Davies, , Reports, p. 54Google Scholar; ‘Monetandi jus principium ossibus inhaeret. Jus Monetae comprehenditur in regalibus quae nunquam a regio sceptro abdicantur.’

70 Davies, , Reports, p. 54Google Scholar.

71 SP/63/226/f/18a; CSPI, 1608–1610, p. 135.

72 Sharpe, K. and Brooks, C., ‘English law and the renaissance’, Past and Present, LXXII (1976), 133–42Google Scholar. See Kelley's rejoinder, pp. 143–6 of the same issue. The controversy was sparked by Kelley, D. H., ‘History, English law and the renaissance’, Past and Present, LXV (1974), 24–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Kelley's book: Foundations of modern historical scholarship.

73 Whittaker, J. W., The mirror of justices, Selden Society, VII (1893) (London, 1895), pp. ix–xi, 3Google Scholar.

74 Sharp, K., Brooks, C. and Kelley, D. H., op. cit. p. 146Google Scholar.