<p><SPAN name="link442HCH0004" id="link442HCH0004"></SPAN></p>
<h2> Chapter XLIV: Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence.—Part IV. </h2>
<p>When Justinian ascended the throne, the reformation of the Roman
jurisprudence was an arduous but indispensable task. In the space of ten
centuries, the infinite variety of laws and legal opinions had filled many
thousand volumes, which no fortune could purchase and no capacity could
digest. Books could not easily be found; and the judges, poor in the midst
of riches, were reduced to the exercise of their illiterate discretion.
The subjects of the Greek provinces were ignorant of the language that
disposed of their lives and properties; and the barbarous dialect of the
Latins was imperfectly studied in the academies of Berytus and
Constantinople. As an Illyrian soldier, that idiom was familiar to the
infancy of Justinian; his youth had been instructed by the lessons of
jurisprudence, and his Imperial choice selected the most learned civilians
of the East, to labor with their sovereign in the work of reformation. <SPAN href="#link44note-71" name="link44noteref-71" id="link44noteref-71">71</SPAN>
The theory of professors was assisted by the practice of advocates, and
the experience of magistrates; and the whole undertaking was animated by
the spirit of Tribonian. <SPAN href="#link44note-72" name="link44noteref-72" id="link44noteref-72">72</SPAN> This extraordinary man, the object of so much
praise and censure, was a native of Side in Pamphylia; and his genius,
like that of Bacon, embraced, as his own, all the business and knowledge
of the age. Tribonian composed, both in prose and verse, on a strange
diversity of curious and abstruse subjects: <SPAN href="#link44note-73"
name="link44noteref-73" id="link44noteref-73">73</SPAN> a double panegyric of
Justinian and the life of the philosopher Theodotus; the nature of
happiness and the duties of government; Homer's catalogue and the
four-and-twenty sorts of metre; the astronomical canon of Ptolemy; the
changes of the months; the houses of the planets; and the harmonic system
of the world. To the literature of Greece he added the use of the Latin
tonque; the Roman civilians were deposited in his library and in his mind;
and he most assiduously cultivated those arts which opened the road of
wealth and preferment. From the bar of the Praetorian praefects, he raised
himself to the honors of quaestor, of consul, and of master of the
offices: the council of Justinian listened to his eloquence and wisdom;
and envy was mitigated by the gentleness and affability of his manners.
The reproaches of impiety and avarice have stained the virtue or the
reputation of Tribonian. In a bigoted and persecuting court, the principal
minister was accused of a secret aversion to the Christian faith, and was
supposed to entertain the sentiments of an Atheist and a Pagan, which have
been imputed, inconsistently enough, to the last philosophers of Greece.
His avarice was more clearly proved and more sensibly felt. If he were
swayed by gifts in the administration of justice, the example of Bacon
will again occur; nor can the merit of Tribonian atone for his baseness,
if he degraded the sanctity of his profession; and if laws were every day
enacted, modified, or repealed, for the base consideration of his private
emolument. In the sedition of Constantinople, his removal was granted to
the clamors, perhaps to the just indignation, of the people: but the
quaestor was speedily restored, and, till the hour of his death, he
possessed, above twenty years, the favor and confidence of the emperor.
His passive and dutiful submission had been honored with the praise of
Justinian himself, whose vanity was incapable of discerning how often that
submission degenerated into the grossest adulation. Tribonian adored the
virtues of his gracious of his gracious master; the earth was unworthy of
such a prince; and he affected a pious fear, that Justinian, like Elijah
or Romulus, would be snatched into the air, and translated alive to the
mansions of celestial glory. <SPAN href="#link44note-74"
name="link44noteref-74" id="link44noteref-74">74</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-71" id="link44note-71">
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<p class="foot">
71 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-71">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ For the legal labors of
Justinian, I have studied the Preface to the Institutes; the 1st, 2d, and
3d Prefaces to the Pandects; the 1st and 2d Preface to the Code; and the
Code itself, (l. i. tit. xvii. de Veteri Jure enucleando.) After these
original testimonies, I have consulted, among the moderns, Heineccius,
(Hist. J. R. No. 383—404,) Terasson. (Hist. de la Jurisprudence
Romaine, p. 295—356,) Gravina, (Opp. p. 93-100,) and Ludewig, in his
Life of Justinian, (p.19—123, 318-321; for the Code and Novels, p.
209—261; for the Digest or Pandects, p. 262—317.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-72" id="link44note-72">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
72 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-72">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ For the character of
Tribonian, see the testimonies of Procopius, (Persic. l. i. c. 23, 24.
Anecdot. c. 13, 20,) and Suidas, (tom. iii. p. 501, edit. Kuster.) Ludewig
(in Vit. Justinian, p. 175—209) works hard, very hard, to whitewash—the
blackamoor.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-73" id="link44note-73">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
73 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-73">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ I apply the two
passages of Suidas to the same man; every circumstance so exactly tallies.
Yet the lawyers appear ignorant; and Fabricius is inclined to separate the
two characters, (Bibliot. Grae. tom. i. p. 341, ii. p. 518, iii. p. 418,
xii. p. 346, 353, 474.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-74" id="link44note-74">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
74 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-74">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ This story is related
by Hesychius, (de Viris Illustribus,) Procopius, (Anecdot. c. 13,) and
Suidas, (tom. iii. p. 501.) Such flattery is incredible! —Nihil est
quod credere de se Non possit, cum laudatur Diis aequa potestas.
Fontenelle (tom. i. p. 32—39) has ridiculed the impudence of the
modest Virgil. But the same Fontenelle places his king above the divine
Augustus; and the sage Boileau has not blushed to say, "Le destin a ses
yeux n'oseroit balancer" Yet neither Augustus nor Louis XIV. were fools.]</p>
<p>If Caesar had achieved the reformation of the Roman law, his creative
genius, enlightened by reflection and study, would have given to the world
a pure and original system of jurisprudence. Whatever flattery might
suggest, the emperor of the East was afraid to establish his private
judgment as the standard of equity: in the possession of legislative
power, he borrowed the aid of time and opinion; and his laborious
compilations are guarded by the sages and legislature of past times.
Instead of a statue cast in a simple mould by the hand of an artist, the
works of Justinian represent a tessellated pavement of antique and costly,
but too often of incoherent, fragments. In the first year of his reign, he
directed the faithful Tribonian, and nine learned associates, to revise
the ordinances of his predecessors, as they were contained, since the time
of Adrian, in the Gregorian Hermogenian, and Theodosian codes; to purge
the errors and contradictions, to retrench whatever was obsolete or
superfluous, and to select the wise and salutary laws best adapted to the
practice of the tribunals and the use of his subjects. The work was
accomplished in fourteen months; and the twelve books or tables, which the
new decemvirs produced, might be designed to imitate the labors of their
Roman predecessors. The new Code of Justinian was honored with his name,
and confirmed by his royal signature: authentic transcripts were
multiplied by the pens of notaries and scribes; they were transmitted to
the magistrates of the European, the Asiatic, and afterwards the African
provinces; and the law of the empire was proclaimed on solemn festivals at
the doors of churches. A more arduous operation was still behind—to
extract the spirit of jurisprudence from the decisions and conjectures,
the questions and disputes, of the Roman civilians. Seventeen lawyers,
with Tribonian at their head, were appointed by the emperor to exercise an
absolute jurisdiction over the works of their predecessors. If they had
obeyed his commands in ten years, Justinian would have been satisfied with
their diligence; and the rapid composition of the Digest of Pandects, <SPAN href="#link44note-75" name="link44noteref-75" id="link44noteref-75">75</SPAN>
in three years, will deserve praise or censure, according to the merit of
the execution. From the library of Tribonian, they chose forty, the most
eminent civilians of former times: <SPAN href="#link44note-76"
name="link44noteref-76" id="link44noteref-76">76</SPAN> two thousand
treatises were comprised in an abridgment of fifty books; and it has been
carefully recorded, that three millions of lines or sentences, <SPAN href="#link44note-77" name="link44noteref-77" id="link44noteref-77">77</SPAN>
were reduced, in this abstract, to the moderate number of one hundred and
fifty thousand. The edition of this great work was delayed a month after
that of the Institutes; and it seemed reasonable that the elements should
precede the digest of the Roman law. As soon as the emperor had approved
their labors, he ratified, by his legislative power, the speculations of
these private citizens: their commentaries, on the twelve tables, the
perpetual edict, the laws of the people, and the decrees of the senate,
succeeded to the authority of the text; and the text was abandoned, as a
useless, though venerable, relic of antiquity. The Code, the Pandects, and
the Institutes, were declared to be the legitimate system of civil
jurisprudence; they alone were admitted into the tribunals, and they alone
were taught in the academies of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus.
Justinian addressed to the senate and provinces his eternal oracles; and
his pride, under the mask of piety, ascribed the consummation of this
great design to the support and inspiration of the Deity.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-75" id="link44note-75">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
75 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-75">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ General receivers was a
common title of the Greek miscellanies, (Plin. Praefat. ad Hist. Natur.)
The Digesta of Scaevola, Marcellinus, Celsus, were already familiar to the
civilians: but Justinian was in the wrong when he used the two
appellations as synonymous. Is the word Pandects Greek or Latin—masculine
or feminine? The diligent Brenckman will not presume to decide these
momentous controversies, (Hist. Pandect. Florentine. p. 200—304.)
Note: The word was formerly in common use. See the preface is Aulus
Gellius—W]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-76" id="link44note-76">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
76 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-76">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Angelus Politianus (l.
v. Epist. ult.) reckons thirty-seven (p. 192—200) civilians quoted
in the Pandects—a learned, and for his times, an extraordinary list.
The Greek index to the Pandects enumerates thirty-nine, and forty are
produced by the indefatigable Fabricius, (Bibliot. Graec. tom. iii. p. 488—502.)
Antoninus Augustus (de Nominibus Propriis Pandect. apud Ludewig, p. 283)
is said to have added fifty-four names; but they must be vague or
second-hand references.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-77" id="link44note-77">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
77 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-77">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The item of the ancient
Mss. may be strictly defined as sentences or periods of a complete sense,
which, on the breadth of the parchment rolls or volumes, composed as many
lines of unequal length. The number in each book served as a check on the
errors of the scribes, (Ludewig, p. 211—215; and his original author
Suicer. Thesaur. Ecclesiast. tom. i. p 1021-1036).]</p>
<p>Since the emperor declined the fame and envy of original composition, we
can only require, at his hands, method choice, and fidelity, the humble,
though indispensable, virtues of a compiler. Among the various
combinations of ideas, it is difficult to assign any reasonable
preference; but as the order of Justinian is different in his three works,
it is possible that all may be wrong; and it is certain that two cannot be
right. In the selection of ancient laws, he seems to have viewed his
predecessors without jealousy, and with equal regard: the series could not
ascend above the reign of Adrian, and the narrow distinction of Paganism
and Christianity, introduced by the superstition of Theodosius, had been
abolished by the consent of mankind. But the jurisprudence of the Pandects
is circumscribed within a period of a hundred years, from the perpetual
edict to the death of Severus Alexander: the civilians who lived under the
first Caesars are seldom permitted to speak, and only three names can be
attributed to the age of the republic. The favorite of Justinian (it has
been fiercely urged) was fearful of encountering the light of freedom and
the gravity of Roman sages.</p>
<p>Tribonian condemned to oblivion the genuine and native wisdom of Cato, the
Scaevolas, and Sulpicius; while he invoked spirits more congenial to his
own, the Syrians, Greeks, and Africans, who flocked to the Imperial court
to study Latin as a foreign tongue, and jurisprudence as a lucrative
profession. But the ministers of Justinian, <SPAN href="#link44note-78"
name="link44noteref-78" id="link44noteref-78">78</SPAN> were instructed to
labor, not for the curiosity of antiquarians, but for the immediate
benefit of his subjects. It was their duty to select the useful and
practical parts of the Roman law; and the writings of the old republicans,
however curious on excellent, were no longer suited to the new system of
manners, religion, and government. Perhaps, if the preceptors and friends
of Cicero were still alive, our candor would acknowledge, that, except in
purity of language, <SPAN href="#link44note-79" name="link44noteref-79" id="link44noteref-79">79</SPAN> their intrinsic merit was excelled by the
school of Papinian and Ulpian. The science of the laws is the slow growth
of time and experience, and the advantage both of method and materials, is
naturally assumed by the most recent authors. The civilians of the reign
of the Antonines had studied the works of their predecessors: their
philosophic spirit had mitigated the rigor of antiquity, simplified the
forms of proceeding, and emerged from the jealousy and prejudice of the
rival sects. The choice of the authorities that compose the Pandects
depended on the judgment of Tribonian: but the power of his sovereign
could not absolve him from the sacred obligations of truth and fidelity.
As the legislator of the empire, Justinian might repeal the acts of the
Antonines, or condemn, as seditious, the free principles, which were
maintained by the last of the Roman lawyers. <SPAN href="#link44note-80"
name="link44noteref-80" id="link44noteref-80">80</SPAN> But the existence of
past facts is placed beyond the reach of despotism; and the emperor was
guilty of fraud and forgery, when he corrupted the integrity of their
text, inscribed with their venerable names the words and ideas of his
servile reign, <SPAN href="#link44note-81" name="link44noteref-81" id="link44noteref-81">81</SPAN> and suppressed, by the hand of power, the
pure and authentic copies of their sentiments. The changes and
interpolations of Tribonian and his colleagues are excused by the pretence
of uniformity: but their cares have been insufficient, and the antinomies,
or contradictions of the Code and Pandects, still exercise the patience
and subtilty of modern civilians. <SPAN href="#link44note-82"
name="link44noteref-82" id="link44noteref-82">82</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-78" id="link44note-78">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
78 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-78">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ An ingenious and
learned oration of Schultingius (Jurisprudentia Ante-Justinianea, p. 883—907)
justifies the choice of Tribonian, against the passionate charges of
Francis Hottoman and his sectaries.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-79" id="link44note-79">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
79 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-79">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Strip away the crust of
Tribonian, and allow for the use of technical words, and the Latin of the
Pandects will be found not unworthy of the silver age. It has been
vehemently attacked by Laurentius Valla, a fastidious grammarian of the
xvth century, and by his apologist Floridus Sabinus. It has been defended
by Alciat, and a name less advocate, (most probably James Capellus.) Their
various treatises are collected by Duker, (Opuscula de Latinitate veterum
Jurisconsultorum, Lugd. Bat. 1721, in 12mo.) Note: Gibbon is mistaken with
regard to Valla, who, though he inveighs against the barbarous style of
the civilians of his own day, lavishes the highest praise on the admirable
purity of the language of the ancient writers on civil law. (M. Warnkonig
quotes a long passage of Valla in justification of this observation.)
Since his time, this truth has been recognized by men of the highest
eminence, such as Erasmus, David Hume and Runkhenius.—W.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-80" id="link44note-80">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
80 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-80">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Nomina quidem veteribus
servavimus, legum autem veritatem nostram fecimus. Itaque siquid erat in
illis seditiosum, multa autem talia erant ibi reposita, hoc decisum est et
definitum, et in perspicuum finem deducta est quaeque lex, (Cod.
Justinian. l. i. tit. xvii. leg. 3, No 10.) A frank confession! * Note:
Seditiosum, in the language of Justinian, means not seditious, but
discounted.—W.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-81" id="link44note-81">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
81 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-81">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The number of these
emblemata (a polite name for forgeries) is much reduced by Bynkershoek,
(in the four last books of his Observations,) who poorly maintains the
right of Justinian and the duty of Tribonian.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-82" id="link44note-82">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
82 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-82">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The antinomies, or
opposite laws of the Code and Pandects, are sometimes the cause, and often
the excuse, of the glorious uncertainty of the civil law, which so often
affords what Montaigne calls "Questions pour l'Ami." See a fine passage of
Franciscus Balduinus in Justinian, (l. ii. p. 259, &c., apud Ludewig,
p. 305, 306.)]</p>
<p>A rumor devoid of evidence has been propagated by the enemies of
Justinian; that the jurisprudence of ancient Rome was reduced to ashes by
the author of the Pandects, from the vain persuasion, that it was now
either false or superfluous. Without usurping an office so invidious, the
emperor might safely commit to ignorance and time the accomplishments of
this destructive wish. Before the invention of printing and paper, the
labor and the materials of writing could be purchased only by the rich;
and it may reasonably be computed, that the price of books was a hundred
fold their present value. <SPAN href="#link44note-83" name="link44noteref-83" id="link44noteref-83">83</SPAN> Copies were slowly multiplied and cautiously
renewed: the hopes of profit tempted the sacrilegious scribes to erase the
characters of antiquity, <SPAN href="#link44note-8311"
name="link44noteref-8311" id="link44noteref-8311">8311</SPAN> and Sophocles
or Tacitus were obliged to resign the parchment to missals, homilies, and
the golden legend. <SPAN href="#link44note-84" name="link44noteref-84" id="link44noteref-84">84</SPAN> If such was the fate of the most beautiful
compositions of genius, what stability could be expected for the dull and
barren works of an obsolete science? The books of jurisprudence were
interesting to few, and entertaining to none: their value was connected
with present use, and they sunk forever as soon as that use was superseded
by the innovations of fashion, superior merit, or public authority. In the
age of peace and learning, between Cicero and the last of the Antonines,
many losses had been already sustained, and some luminaries of the school,
or forum, were known only to the curious by tradition and report. Three
hundred and sixty years of disorder and decay accelerated the progress of
oblivion; and it may fairly be presumed, that of the writings, which
Justinian is accused of neglecting, many were no longer to be found in the
libraries of the East. <SPAN href="#link44note-85" name="link44noteref-85" id="link44noteref-85">85</SPAN> The copies of Papinian, or Ulpian, which the
reformer had proscribed, were deemed unworthy of future notice: the Twelve
Tables and praetorian edicts insensibly vanished, and the monuments of
ancient Rome were neglected or destroyed by the envy and ignorance of the
Greeks. Even the Pandects themselves have escaped with difficulty and
danger from the common shipwreck, and criticism has pronounced that all
the editions and manuscripts of the West are derived from one original. <SPAN href="#link44note-86" name="link44noteref-86" id="link44noteref-86">86</SPAN>
It was transcribed at Constantinople in the beginning of the seventh
century, <SPAN href="#link44note-87" name="link44noteref-87" id="link44noteref-87">87</SPAN> was successively transported by the accidents
of war and commerce to Amalphi, <SPAN href="#link44note-88"
name="link44noteref-88" id="link44noteref-88">88</SPAN> Pisa, <SPAN href="#link44note-89" name="link44noteref-89" id="link44noteref-89">89</SPAN>
and Florence, <SPAN href="#link44note-90" name="link44noteref-90" id="link44noteref-90">90</SPAN> and is now deposited as a sacred relic <SPAN href="#link44note-91" name="link44noteref-91" id="link44noteref-91">91</SPAN>
in the ancient palace of the republic. <SPAN href="#link44note-92"
name="link44noteref-92" id="link44noteref-92">92</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-83" id="link44note-83">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
83 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-83">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ When Faust, or Faustus,
sold at Paris his first printed Bibles as manuscripts, the price of a
parchment copy was reduced from four or five hundred to sixty, fifty, and
forty crowns. The public was at first pleased with the cheapness, and at
length provoked by the discovery of the fraud, (Mattaire, Annal.
Typograph. tom. i. p. 12; first edit.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-8311" id="link44note-8311">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
8311 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-8311">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Among the works
which have been recovered, by the persevering and successful endeavors of
M. Mai and his followers to trace the imperfectly erased characters of the
ancient writers on these Palimpsests, Gibbon at this period of his labors
would have hailed with delight the recovery of the Institutes of Gaius,
and the fragments of the Theodosian Code, published by M Keyron of Turin.—M.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-84" id="link44note-84">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
84 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-84">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ This execrable practice
prevailed from the viiith, and more especially from the xiith, century,
when it became almost universal (Montfaucon, in the Memoires de
l'Academie, tom. vi. p. 606, &c. Bibliotheque Raisonnee de la
Diplomatique, tom. i. p. 176.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-85" id="link44note-85">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
85 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-85">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Pomponius (Pandect. l.
i. tit. ii. leg. 2) observes, that of the three founders of the civil law,
Mucius, Brutus, and Manilius, extant volumina, scripta Manilii monumenta;
that of some old republican lawyers, haec versantur eorum scripta inter
manus hominum. Eight of the Augustan sages were reduced to a compendium:
of Cascellius, scripta non extant sed unus liber, &c.; of Trebatius,
minus frequentatur; of Tubero, libri parum grati sunt. Many quotations in
the Pandects are derived from books which Tribonian never saw; and in the
long period from the viith to the xiiith century of Rome, the apparent
reading of the moderns successively depends on the knowledge and veracity
of their predecessors.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-86" id="link44note-86">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
86 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-86">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ All, in several
instances, repeat the errors of the scribe and the transpositions of some
leaves in the Florentine Pandects. This fact, if it be true, is decisive.
Yet the Pandects are quoted by Ivo of Chartres, (who died in 1117,) by
Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, and by Vacarius, our first professor,
in the year 1140, (Selden ad Fletam, c. 7, tom. ii. p. 1080—1085.)
Have our British Mss. of the Pandects been collated?]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-87" id="link44note-87">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
87 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-87">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ See the description of
this original in Brenckman, (Hist. Pandect. Florent. l. i. c. 2, 3, p. 4—17,
and l. ii.) Politian, an enthusiast, revered it as the authentic standard
of Justinian himself, (p. 407, 408;) but this paradox is refuted by the
abbreviations of the Florentine Ms. (l. ii. c. 3, p. 117-130.) It is
composed of two quarto volumes, with large margins, on a thin parchment,
and the Latin characters betray the band of a Greek scribe.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-88" id="link44note-88">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
88 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-88">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Brenckman, at the end
of his history, has inserted two dissertations on the republic of Amalphi,
and the Pisan war in the year 1135, &c.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-89" id="link44note-89">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
89 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-89">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The discovery of the
Pandects at Amalphi (A. D 1137) is first noticed (in 1501) by Ludovicus
Bologninus, (Brenckman, l. i. c. 11, p. 73, 74, l. iv. c. 2, p. 417—425,)
on the faith of a Pisan chronicle, (p. 409, 410,) without a name or a
date. The whole story, though unknown to the xiith century, embellished by
ignorant ages, and suspected by rigid criticism, is not, however,
destitute of much internal probability, (l. i. c. 4—8, p. 17—50.)
The Liber Pandectarum of Pisa was undoubtedly consulted in the xivth
century by the great Bartolus, (p. 406, 407. See l. i. c. 9, p. 50—62.)
Note: Savigny (vol. iii. p. 83, 89) examines and rejects the whole story.
See likewise Hallam vol. iii. p. 514.—M.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-90" id="link44note-90">
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<p class="foot">
90 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-90">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Pisa was taken by the
Florentines in the year 1406; and in 1411 the Pandects were transported to
the capital. These events are authentic and famous.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-91" id="link44note-91">
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<p class="foot">
91 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-91">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ They were new bound in
purple, deposited in a rich casket, and shown to curious travellers by the
monks and magistrates bareheaded, and with lighted tapers, (Brenckman, l.
i. c. 10, 11, 12, p. 62—93.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-92" id="link44note-92">
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<p class="foot">
92 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-92">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ After the collations of
Politian, Bologninus, and Antoninus Augustinus, and the splendid edition
of the Pandects by Taurellus, (in 1551,) Henry Brenckman, a Dutchman,
undertook a pilgrimage to Florence, where he employed several years in the
study of a single manuscript. His Historia Pandectarum Florentinorum,
(Utrecht, 1722, in 4to.,) though a monument of industry, is a small
portion of his original design.]</p>
<p>It is the first care of a reformer to prevent any future reformation. To
maintain the text of the Pandects, the Institutes, and the Code, the use
of ciphers and abbreviations was rigorously proscribed; and as Justinian
recollected, that the perpetual edict had been buried under the weight of
commentators, he denounced the punishment of forgery against the rash
civilians who should presume to interpret or pervert the will of their
sovereign. The scholars of Accursius, of Bartolus, of Cujacius, should
blush for their accumulated guilt, unless they dare to dispute his right
of binding the authority of his successors, and the native freedom of the
mind. But the emperor was unable to fix his own inconstancy; and, while he
boasted of renewing the exchange of Diomede, of transmuting brass into
gold, <SPAN href="#link44note-93" name="link44noteref-93" id="link44noteref-93">93</SPAN> discovered the necessity of purifying his
gold from the mixture of baser alloy. Six years had not elapsed from the
publication of the Code, before he condemned the imperfect attempt, by a
new and more accurate edition of the same work; which he enriched with two
hundred of his own laws, and fifty decisions of the darkest and most
intricate points of jurisprudence. Every year, or, according to Procopius,
each day, of his long reign, was marked by some legal innovation. Many of
his acts were rescinded by himself; many were rejected by his successors;
many have been obliterated by time; but the number of sixteen Edicts, and
one hundred and sixty-eight Novels, <SPAN href="#link44note-94"
name="link44noteref-94" id="link44noteref-94">94</SPAN> has been admitted
into the authentic body of the civil jurisprudence. In the opinion of a
philosopher superior to the prejudices of his profession, these incessant,
and, for the most part, trifling alterations, can be only explained by the
venal spirit of a prince, who sold without shame his judgments and his
laws. <SPAN href="#link44note-95" name="link44noteref-95" id="link44noteref-95">95</SPAN> The charge of the secret historian is indeed
explicit and vehement; but the sole instance, which he produces, may be
ascribed to the devotion as well as to the avarice of Justinian. A wealthy
bigot had bequeathed his inheritance to the church of Emesa; and its value
was enhanced by the dexterity of an artist, who subscribed confessions of
debt and promises of payment with the names of the richest Syrians. They
pleaded the established prescription of thirty or forty years; but their
defence was overruled by a retrospective edict, which extended the claims
of the church to the term of a century; an edict so pregnant with
injustice and disorder, that, after serving this occasional purpose, it
was prudently abolished in the same reign. <SPAN href="#link44note-96"
name="link44noteref-96" id="link44noteref-96">96</SPAN> If candor will acquit
the emperor himself, and transfer the corruption to his wife and
favorites, the suspicion of so foul a vice must still degrade the majesty
of his laws; and the advocates of Justinian may acknowledge, that such
levity, whatsoever be the motive, is unworthy of a legislator and a man.</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-93" id="link44note-93">
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<p class="foot">
93 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-93">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Apud Homerum patrem
omnis virtutis, (1st Praefat. ad Pandect.) A line of Milton or Tasso would
surprise us in an act of parliament. Quae omnia obtinere sancimus in omne
aevum. Of the first Code, he says, (2d Praefat.,) in aeternum valiturum.
Man and forever!]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-94" id="link44note-94">
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<p class="foot">
94 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-94">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Novellae is a classic
adjective, but a barbarous substantive, (Ludewig, p. 245.) Justinian never
collected them himself; the nine collations, the legal standard of modern
tribunals, consist of ninety-eight Novels; but the number was increased by
the diligence of Julian, Haloander, and Contius, (Ludewig, p. 249, 258
Aleman. Not in Anecdot. p. 98.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-95" id="link44note-95">
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<p class="foot">
95 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-95">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Montesquieu,
Considerations sur la Grandeur et la Decadence des Romains, c. 20, tom.
iii. p. 501, in 4to. On this occasion he throws aside the gown and cap of
a President a Mortier.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-96" id="link44note-96">
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<p class="foot">
96 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-96">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Procopius, Anecdot. c.
28. A similar privilege was granted to the church of Rome, (Novel. ix.)
For the general repeal of these mischievous indulgences, see Novel. cxi.
and Edict. v.]</p>
<p>Monarchs seldom condescend to become the preceptors of their subjects; and
some praise is due to Justinian, by whose command an ample system was
reduced to a short and elementary treatise. Among the various institutes
of the Roman law, <SPAN href="#link44note-97" name="link44noteref-97" id="link44noteref-97">97</SPAN> those of Caius <SPAN href="#link44note-98"
name="link44noteref-98" id="link44noteref-98">98</SPAN> were the most popular
in the East and West; and their use may be considered as an evidence of
their merit. They were selected by the Imperial delegates, Tribonian,
Theophilus, and Dorotheus; and the freedom and purity of the Antonines was
incrusted with the coarser materials of a degenerate age. The same volume
which introduced the youth of Rome, Constantinople, and Berytus, to the
gradual study of the Code and Pandects, is still precious to the
historian, the philosopher, and the magistrate. The Institutes of
Justinian are divided into four books: they proceed, with no contemptible
method, from, I. Persons, to, II. Things, and from things, to, III.
Actions; and the article IV., of Private Wrongs, is terminated by the
principles of Criminal Law. <SPAN href="#link44note-9811"
name="link44noteref-9811" id="link44noteref-9811">9811</SPAN></p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-97" id="link44note-97">
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<p class="foot">
97 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-97">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Lactantius, in his
Institutes of Christianity, an elegant and specious work, proposes to
imitate the title and method of the civilians. Quidam prudentes et arbitri
aequitatis Institutiones Civilis Juris compositas ediderunt, (Institut.
Divin. l. i. c. 1.) Such as Ulpian, Paul, Florentinus, Marcian.]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-98" id="link44note-98">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
98 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-98">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ The emperor Justinian
calls him suum, though he died before the end of the second century. His
Institutes are quoted by Servius, Boethius, Priscian, &c.; and the
Epitome by Arrian is still extant. (See the Prolegomena and notes to the
edition of Schulting, in the Jurisprudentia Ante-Justinianea, Lugd. Bat.
1717. Heineccius, Hist. J R No. 313. Ludewig, in Vit. Just. p. 199.)]</p>
<p><SPAN name="link44note-9811" id="link44note-9811">
<!-- Note --></SPAN></p>
<p class="foot">
9811 (<SPAN href="#link44noteref-9811">return</SPAN>)<br/> [ Gibbon, dividing
the Institutes into four parts, considers the appendix of the criminal law
in the last title as a fourth part.—W.]</p>
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