Vacarius and the Advent of Civil Law: Medieval Oxford, #1

By David EP Dennis

Vacarius and the Advent of Civil Law

This is Volume 1 of the series of books about Medieval Oxford University. The series will examine a wide range of positive and negative connections between the University and the world in medieval times (c.1066-1500). How did people at Oxford's great seat of learning, by occupation or invitation, think - and what did they think about? What kinds of events happened in the area? What were the relationships between the monarch, religious leaders, local population, foreign institutions, and the university? This first volume reveals how the Italian jurist Master Vacarius who was brought to England to help the development of civil law, was brave in the face of the wrath of King Stephen who ordered the burning of his books - and how Oxford became a beacon of intellectual freedom. In this volume we look at how the civil law of the Roman Empire was brought, via European Universities such as Bologna and Padua, to England - and Oxford in particular. The book reviews the fascinating development of early law: in Egypt and Babylon, the fate of slaves, and the Roman Empire's legal refinements driven by Justinian I. We also consider the mass Saxon executions of Charlemagne, the severe rule of William the Conqueror and the work of Irnerius, Vacarius, and tragic Thomas Becket. The book also explains Anglo-Saxon laws, such as Hue & Cry and Compurgation, which existed in England as Vacarius arrived from Bologna to work for Archbishop Theobald of Bec in 1143.

Most importantly, the book shows how kind and helpful to students was Master Vacarius. He really was a 'Man for All Seasons' rather than the robotic and inflexible Becket.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David EP Dennis
• Release date: Jun 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223467779

David EP Dennis

David EP Dennis is a retired RAF officer. He lives in East Sussex, England. He is a civil partner with Ellen. He has three children and six grandchildren. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Licentiate of City & Guilds International. David is the Journal Editor for the Hastings & East Sussex Natural History Society. He has founded two national charities. He now engages in extensive historical research and works to inform and preserve heritage and wildlife through his photography.  David has had a remarkably wide-ranging career: as an RAF Mountain Rescue Team member, PA to the Red Arrows, many important military posts and as inspector and consultant for education and vocational training. He also worked as a Sussex Police volunteer. He has travelled worldwide, especially in the Arctic, Scandinavia, the Middle East, and Australia. David has an Honours degree in Creative Writing, Classic and Linguistics. He is a member of Rye Harbour History Group.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Preface

Dear Reader

This book is the first in a series about Medieval Oxford and its university. This edition, Volume One, is about the relationship between Oxford University and the development of the law – especially the civil law although some early law merged civil and criminal aspects. There has always been some sort of rule, initially tribal, with some alpha male forcing a desired outcome through violence, or perhaps the whole tribe sitting down together to decide on the limits to freedom in order to ensure maximum cooperation for the benefit of all. From the earliest times there was punishment for law-breaking, with Lex Talionis – the Babylonian system of matching the punishment with the crime – an eye for an eye. In this book a range of laws enforced by kings and emperors are set out in simple wording so that you may see how simple and mostly harsh the early laws were. They were usually phrased – 'If…then…' If you have murdered then you will be killed' and so on.

The Advent of Civil Law

In England and in most of Europe over the period from medieval times to now, various kinds of laws, regulations and codes of behaviour or guidance have evolved. For example, Common Law, Criminal Law, Civil Law, Church Law, Canon Law, Decretals, Export Regulations, Byelaws, the UK Highway Code and Country Code, and so on. In this book we are looking at the idea of Civil Law based on Roman Law. This is different to Common Law. It is said that Common Law has developed from thousands of individual decisions by the early courts as to how to view crimes. These decisions over many years act as precedents, showing the way that judges and jurists think that the next identical or similar case should be dealt with. So for example, in Britain, the offence of murder is tried under Common Law, not Civil Law. In England the Crown Prosecution Service makes decisions on Common and Criminal Law, such as murder, rape, arson, burglary, theft, vandalism and other forms of violence or illegality against the person or their property. Trial is usually by judge and jury.

Civil Law is a developed set of codes of legal behaviours derived from Roman Law. These laws have been refined by expert jurists and reintroduced in a more modern fashion in medieval times via the early universities of Europe, to make decisions about, for example: marriage, civil partnership, the custody of children, bankruptcy, defamation (libel and slander), breach of contract, negligence resulting in injury or death, property damage and other private matters between individuals. Cases are dealt with in order to give restitution or for judges to give clarification as to how parties shall or must proceed.

We all want love and peace — time to develop our relationships, perhaps to bring up a family or to have adventures with partners. We cannot act in any psychopathic way we please without hazarding others. Our British and European civil law has evolved from Roman Law. So in this book I chart the gradual pathway from early attempts to set standards of behaviour and punishment, to more refined thinking by jurists attached to the early European universities. One brave and clever legal thinker who came from Italy to England and to Oxford University was Vacarius, and he is the main subject of this book. You may never have heard of him or the problems he faced, but I hope this book will remedy that to some extent.

Chapter 2

Introduction

In the beginning

Humans - the bipedal and highly intelligent Great Ape Homo Sapiens - emerged around 300,000 years ago in Africa. We evolved from a complex background of apes that succeeded and those that became extinct. From the way that stone tools were being used, and the use of fire, and the growth of cave art and bone carving, we assume that they were organised into family groups within larger tribal entities. We do not know what sorts of unwritten laws there were as tribal and family groups evolved but we can imagine that some limits to behaviour were set, and some co-operative rules did apply; punishment was swift. Many cases have been found of people strangled and left in bogs several thousands of years ago. For most of our early history, behavioural rules and customs have been taught verbally and by example by parents to children and by tribal leaders to tribal members. For several hundred thousand years therefore, no laws were written down, and all depended on mandate, custom and memory. It is a terrible truth that well before the first written laws, society was divided into humans and slaves. Slaves had few or no rights and suffered appalling hardship. Often, they had lost their rights because they had been defeated in battle. It is therefore deeply regrettable that