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The Life of Hugo Grotius; With Brief Minutes of the Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of the Netherlands
The Life of Hugo Grotius With Brief Minutes of the Civil Ecclesiastical and Literary History of the Netherlands Author:Charles Butler General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1826 Original Publisher: J. Murray Subjects: Lawyers Netherlands Statesman Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial ... more »access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II. GROTIUS EMBRACES THE PROFESSION OF THE LAW. HIS FIRST PROMOTIONS. 1597 -- 1610. IN the ruin of the Roman Empire, her laws were lost in the general wreck. During the 200 years, which followed the reign of Con- stantine the Great, Europe was a scene of every calamity, which the inroads of barbarians could inflict, either on the countries through which they passed, or those in which they settled. About the sixth century, Europe obtained some degree of tranquillity, in consequence of the introduction of feudalism; the most singular event in the annals of history. At first, it produced a general anarchy; but the system of subordination upon which it was grounded, contained in it the germ of regular government, and even, of jurisprudence. Its effects were first visible in the various codes of law which the barbarous nations promulgated. Such are the Salic, the Ripuarian, the Alemannic, the Bur- gundian, the Visigothic, and the Lombard laws. A complicated or refined system of jurispru- Feudal dence is not to be looked for in them; but, if f" they are considered with due regard to the state of society for which they were calculated, they will be found to contain much that deserves praise. The capitularies, or short legislative provisions, propounded by the sovereign, and adopted by the public assemblies of the nation, were a further advance in legislation. By degrees, so much regularity prevailed in the judicial proceedings and legal transactions, that they were regulated by established formularies; and, in addition to those...« less