[38] Blackstone, _Commentaries_, vol. III., p. 149; J. H[oddesdon], _Tho. Mori Vita_, Lond. 1652, p. 26.
[39] Smith, _Commonwealth_, ed. 1601, p. 141: ‘_withernam_ … is in plaine Dutch and in our olde Saxon language _wyther nempt_.’
[Sidenote: _Barbarous language of the law._]
[40] Pollock, _First Book of Jurisprudence_, p. 283, from Dyer’s _Reports_, 188 _b_, in the notes added in ed. 1688: ‘Richardson, ch. Just. de C. Banc. al Assises at Salisbury in Summer 1631. fuit assault per prisoner la condemne pur felony que puis son condemnation ject un Brickbat a le dit Justice que narrowly mist, & pur ceo immediately fuit indictment drawn per Noy envers le prisoner, & son dexter manus ampute & fix al Gibbet sur que luy mesme immediatment hange in presence de Court.’ In France the Ordonnance of Villers-Cotterets (1539) decreed that the judgments of the French courts should be recorded no longer in Latin but in French. ‘L’utilité de cette innovation … se comprend assez d’elle-même. On dit qu’un motif d’une autre nature, l’intérêt des belles-lettres, ne contribua pas moins à y décider le roi [François I], choqué du latin barbare qu’employaient les tribunaux. Un arrêt rendu en ces termes: _Dicta curia debotavit et debotat dictum Colinum de sua demanda_, fut, dit on, ce qui entraîna la suppression du latin judiciaire.’ Henri Martin, _Histoire de France_, vol. VIII., pp. 272-3; see also Christie, _Étienne Dolet_, ed. 2, p. 424.
[41] Ellis, _Original Letters_, Ser. II., vol. II., p. 61, Dr Layton to Cromwell: ‘We have sett Dunce in Bocardo and have utterly banished him Oxforde for ever, with all his blynd glosses, and is now made a common servant to evere man, fast nailede up upon posts in all common howses of easement.’
[42] _Stat._ 31 Hen. VIII., cap. 8. Already in 1535 Cromwell reports with joy an opinion obtained from the judges to the effect that in a certain event the king might issue a proclamation which would be ‘as effective as any statute’ (_Letters and Papers, Henry VIII._, vol. VIII., p. 411).
[Sidenote: _Civilians in councils and in courts. Project for a new court._]
[43] The story (with which we are familiar in England) of the evolution of various councils and courts from an ancient _Curia Regis_ seems to have a close parallel in French history: so close that imitation on one side or the other may at times be suspected. After the _parlement_ with its various chambers (which answer to our courts of common law) has been established, the royal council interferes with judicial matters in divers ways, and sections of the council become tribunals which compete with the _parlement_. (See, _e.g._ Esmein, _Histoire du droit français_, ed. 2, pp. 469 ff., and the pedigree of courts and councils in Lavisse et Rambaud, _Histoire générale_, vol. IV., p. 143; also the pedigree in N. Valois, _Le conseil du roi_ (1888), p. 11; and Brissaud, _Histoire du droit français_, pp. 816 ff.) In Germany the doctors of civil law made their way first into councils and then into courts. ‘Die fremdrechtlich geschulten Juristen wurden in Deutschland anfänglich nur in Verwaltungssachen verwendet. Zur Rechtsprechung gelangten sie dadurch, dass die Verwaltung diese an sich zog, und zwar zuerst am Hofe des Königs’ (Brunner, _Grundzüge der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte_, 1901, p. 227). In the England of Henry VIII’s day there seems no little danger that _die fremdrechtlich geschulten Juristen_, of whom there are a good many in the king’s service, will gain the upper hand in the new courts that have emerged from the council, and will proceed from _Verwaltung_ to _Rechtsprechung_. There came a time when Dr Tunstall (who got his law at Padua) was presiding over the Council of the North and Dr Roland Lee over the Council of the Marches. In 1538 Dr Lee, who was endeavouring to bring Wales to order, said in a letter to Cromwell, ‘If we should do nothing but as the common law will, these things so far out of order will never be redressed’ (_Dict. Nat. Biog._, vol. XXXII., p. 375).