LAW OF CUSTOMS AND ROMAN LAW UNDER THE OLD MONARCHY.
Here again it would be imprudent to draw a hard and fast line between the feudal and royal periods. The subject is one, moreover, of sufficient importance to justify a special chapter being devoted to its study.
Under the Frank Monarchy, law was of a personal character; Germanic customs had been made the subject of written legal texts, and the old capitulaires were henceforth but a memory of the Moyen Age. Custom alone was the or der of the day from the 10th to the beginning of the 12th century, a period moreover in which chaos reigned supreme. A renaissance of Roman law appeared aside the Custom law, either co existing with it or resisting it and sometimes even replacing it. Furthermore, from the 14th century onward, kings began to make laws by means of royal ordinances. Canon law was improved on and became more completive, ex ercising over the other Roman and Royal Cus tomary laws a reactionary effect of an often satisfactory nature.
Customary Law.— In principle, customary law was applied to the northern and central provinces (Alsace excepted) and Roman law to the southern provinces. But where in the north and centre custom was mute, recourse was had to Roman law to settle controversial disputes. Although the countries placed under Roman law were considered as being governed by written laws, it should not be concluded that in matters of custom oral traditions prevailed up to the time of the Great Revolution. These customs, which had been strongly influenced by Germanic law, were first made the subject of written legal documents, compiled privately by legal institutions — such as the Etablissements de Saint afterward officially recog nized by decree of Charles VII at Montil-les Tours in 1453. Gradually the divers customs were all incorporated into written texts, and Louis XIV in 1679 ordained that they be taught, like the Roman law, in all the univer sities throughout the kingdom.
The customs were territorial, contrary to the laws and customs of the Frank Monarchy, which were of a personal character. They
were moreover numerous. Some of them were widely disseminated, extending for instance to a whole province: Brittany, Normandy, Berry. There were some 60 of these general customs. Besides 'these there existed the minor customs called local customs applicable to particular cases, by derogation to a general custom, and governing only a small district, sometimes merely a single town or village. Their number was about 300.
Of all the customs those of Paris rapidly acquired preponderance, and ended by being considered as representing the common law of the kingdom, applicable in case of muteness for other customs. This privileged situation arose from the following causes: Paris was the capital of the kingdom, its parliament, whose resorts were vast, exercised a great influence over the jurisprudence of the provinces, and was, more over, the principal centre of the legal profession.
Roman During the feudal period and the absolute monarch period Roman law was studied, not out of idle curiosity from an historical point of view or as a legal education, but because it was law actually in force (like to a certain extent in Greece at the present time).
Up to the 16th century, Roman law was but little known; there only existed the texts com prised in the leges romanorum of the French monarch. But toward 1150 Irnerius, professor at the Bologna University, discovered at Pisa the works of Justinies and included them in the curriculum of his students. This was a filip so to speak. In the south of France where the population was really governed by Roman law, Roman doctrines were even more brought to the fore and their principles adopted. In the provinces where written laws prevailed, the the °Code de Jerusalem,* the °Insti tutes* and the °Nouvelles* acquired the status of actual codes. In cases of contradiction be tween the texts the most recent one prevailed.