392 FOUETH PEEIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
men and scholars, from whom he was anxious to learn without sacrificing his right to rule. His court was a school of discipline and of that gentlemanly courtesy and refinement which became a distinguishing feature of chivalry, and Charlemagne shone in poetry as the first model cavalier.
The legislation of the Carolingian Capitularies is favorable to the clergy, to monasteries, to the cause of good morals and religion. The marriage tie is protected, even among slaves ; the license of divorce restrained ; divorced persons are forbidden to marry again during the life-time of the other party. The observance of Sunday is enjoined for the special benefit of the laboring classes. Ecclesiastical discipline is enforced by penal laws in cases of gross sins such as incest. Superstitious customs, as consulting soothsayers and the Scriptures for oracles, are dis couraged, but the ordeal is enjoined. Wholesome moral lessons are introduced, sometimes in the language of the Scriptures : the people are warned against perjury, against feud, against shedding Christian blood, against the oppression of the poor (whose cause should be heard by the judges before the cause of the rich). They are exhorted to learn the Apostles' Creed and to pray, to love one another and to live in peace, " because they have one Father in heaven." Cupidity is called "a root of all evil." Respect for the dead is encouraged. Hospitality is recommended for the reason that he who receives a little child in the name of Christ, receives him.
This legislation was much neglected under the weak successors of Charlemagne, but remains a noble monument of his intentions.
§ 91. English Legislation.
Leges Anglo-Saxonicce (1721). THORPE: Ancient Laws and Institutes of England (London 1840). MATTHEW HALE: History of the Common Law (6th ed. by Eunnington, 1820). EEEVE : History of the English Law (new ed. by Finalson 1869, 3 vols.). BLACKSTONE : Commentaries on the Laws of England (London 1765, many ed. Engl. and Amer.). BURN : Ecclesiastical Law (9th ed. by Phillimore, 1842, 4 vols.). PHILLIMORE: Ecclesiastical Law of the Church of England
§ 91. ENGLISH LEGISLATION. 393
(Lond. 1873, 2 vols.). WM. STROXG (Justice of the Supreme Court of the U. S.) : Two Lectures upon the Relations of Civil Law to Church Property (N. York 1875).
England never accepted the Roman civil law, and the canon law only in part. The island in its isolation was protected by the sea against foreign influence, and jealous of it. It built up its own system of jurisprudence on the basis of Anglo-Saxon habits and customs. The English civil law is divided into Common Law or lex non scripta (i. e. not written at first), and Statute Law or lex scripta. They are related to each other as oral tradition and the Bible are in theology. The Common Law embodies the ancient general and local customs of the English people, handed down by word of mouth from time immemorial, and afterwards recorded in the decisions of judges who are regarded as the living oracles of interpretation and application, and whose decisions must be adhered to in similar cases of litiga tion. It is Anglo-Saxon in its roots, and moulded by Norman lawyers, under the influence of Christian principles of justice and equity. Blackstone, the standard expounder of English law, says, " Christianity is a part of the Common Law of Eng land." ! Hence the laws against religious offences, as blasphemy, profane swearing, desecration of the Lord's Day, apostasy from Christianity, and heresy.2
1 Comment. Bk IV. ch. 4. The same may be said of the United States as far as they have adopted the Common Law of the mother country. It is so declared by the highest courts of New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, and by many eminent judges, but with this essential modification that those parts of the Common Law of England which imply the union of church and state are inapplicable to the United States where they are separated. Justice Strong (1. c. j). 32) says : tf The laws and institutions of all the States are built on the foundation of reverence for Christianity." The court of Pennsylvania states the law in this manner : " Christianity is and always has been a par*, of the Common Law of this State. Christianity without the spiritual artillery of European countries — not Christianity founded on any particular religious tenets — not Christianity with an established church and titles and spiritual courts, but Christianity with liberty of conscience to all men."
2 The statute de hceretico comburendo, passed in 1401 (Henry IV. c. 15), was still in force under Elizabeth when two Anabaptists were burned alive, and under James I. when two Arians were burned.