BRA BRACTON, HENRICUS. De Legibus et Consuetudinibus An- glise, Libri quinque. 4to. London. 1640. This is a complete Treatise upon the law of England as it existed when Bracton wrote. It is divided into five books, and these are subdi- vided with method and system, affording a copious and accurate detail of legal learning. Bracton's method of treating his subjects, resembles that of Justinian, whom he often introduces in ipsissimis verbis, as well as the canon law, which has led some to suppose that he was more of the civilian and canonist than the common lawyer. At the time he wrote the Pope's supremacy in England was absolute, and it is not sur-
- prising, therefore, that in his work we find the common, the civil, and
the canon law in juxtaposition. The authority of Bracton has occa- sionally been questioned, when it was the fashion of the times to under- rate every work in any way connected with the canon or the civil law, but this author has always had warm admirers and able defenders. Ful- beck, two hundred and fifty years since, says — " There be some ancient writers of the law, namely, Bracton, Britton, and Glainville, whom, as it is not unprofitable to read, so to rely upon them is dangerous; for most of that which they do give forth for law is now antiquated and abolished ; their books are monumenia adorandec ruhiginis, which be of more reverence than authority." Fitzherbert informs us that it was agreed by the whole coujt in 35 Hen. VI. that Bracton was never taken for an authority in our law. Upon reference to the Year Book it appears that Fitzherbert is not war- ranted in the assertion. Plowden, in his Commentaries, says that Bracton and Glanville were not authorities in our law, but are only cited as ornaments to discourse when they agree with the law. Plowd. Com. 357 ; 1 Shower, 121. Staunforde, however, held this father of the English law in such high estimation, " that he ventured to cite and argue from him upon the bench" — and Fortescue Aland said that " the law books of Bracton and Fleta were the ancient law of the land, extending to all cases. These books are so strong that there has been no means of evading them but by deny- ing their authority, and calling them books of civil law, and I never knew them denied for law except where some statute or ancient usage has altered them." In profundity and extent of legal learning, Bracton holds a deservedly high rank among the early English legal writers, and his work has been and is quoted and relied on by all our great judges and lawyers as to what the common law was at the time he wrote. It is written in a better style and purer Latin than Glanville, which in part may be attributed to the author's familiarity with the Roman law. The work for a long time remained in manuscript, and many copies of it were in circulation, with additions and notes by various hands, before it was printed. It was no easy task to compile a genuine text 140
