[1]
[1] Lyte, 88-89; Einstein, 180.
The searcher among old wills cannot fail to be struck
with the number of law books in the small private libraries.
Sometimes the whole of one of these little collections consists
of law books; often there are more books of this
kind than of any other. For example, of eighty books
bequeathed by Prior Eastry to Christ Church, Canterbury,
forty-three were on canon and civil law: of eighty-four
books given to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, by the founder,
exactly one-half were juridical. A wealthy canon of York
left but half a dozen books, all on law. The books bequeathed
to Peterborough Abbey by successive abbots were
chiefly on law. Many other examples could be recited.
There was a reason for this. Friar Bacon,writing in 1271,
complained that jurists got all rewards and benefices, while
students of theology and philosophy lacked the means of
livelihood, could not obtain books, and were unable to pursue
their scientific studies. Canonists, even, were only rewarded
because of their previous knowledge of civil law: at Oxford
three years had to be devoted to the study of civil law
before a student could be admitted as bachelor of canon
law.
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