xercised an influence as a model and a repository of maxims, all the
greater because in every country it was a law in actual force within a
sphere of which the boundaries were constantly being disputed between
the lay and the church powers.

The beginnings of modern Europe with which we associate such things as
the revival of learning and the Reformation brought with them on the
Continent the event which is known as the reception of Roman law. The
traditions of the ancient world had been seen in mediaeval times through
mediaeval eyes, and had been moulded to mediaeval needs. The new age
insisted on going back direct to the classical tradition. It was the
actual Roman law of Justinian, not the Roman law as interpreted by
mediaeval commentators, that was to be studied and applied. The
break-up of the institutions of the Middle Ages, the growth of absolute
monarchical power, the centralization of government, all favoured the
tendency. Roman law contained doctrines eminently pleasing to an
absolute ruler, e.g. 'the decision of the monarch has the force of law'.
In Germany above all, where law was divided into countless local
customs, the movement had its fullest effect. Roman law comes to be the
law which is to be applied in the absence of positive enactment or
justifiable custom. The native law finds itself driven to plead for its
life, and is lucky if it can satisfy the conditions which are required
to enable it to continue as a recognized custom. In every country of the
West outside England, in greater or less degree, the Roman law comes in
as something which will at least fill up the gaps, and will purge or
remodel the native law. Even in Scotland texts of the Roman law may be
quoted as authorities. The strength of our own law, and the successful
resistance of our public institutions to monarchical power saved us
alone from a 'reception', in the continental sense, of Roman law. And
even our Blackstone will quote Roman law with respect where it tends to
confirm our own rules.

If this reception was a movement which brought about a greater unity in
the form and substance of the laws of Western Europe, there was another
factor at work which tended in the opposite direction. The claims of the
Empire to universal authority become more and more unreal: the claims of
the Pope are either rejected entirely, or the ecclesiastical sphere is
strictly delimited. The State becomes sovereign. For this purpose it
makes no difference w