1. Law, Religion.—From the dawn of the science of law it has been influenced by religion or antagonism to religion. This is very evident in the ancient laws of Babylonia, Egypt, Phenicia, Israel, India, and Ireland. It would be impossible to make a study of the law of any of said countries without gaining a knowledge of its religious system, whether pagan or otherwise.[3]
2. Religions.—Ancient nations might be classified into pagan and those that worshiped the universal God. However, some of the nations at one time were pagan and at other times had a fair conception of the supernatural. Also, in Egypt, the class of higher culture and education believed in the one omnipotent and omniscient Being, but [pg 014] the populace, who could be controlled more readily by flattering them in their notions and giving their childish conceptions full sway, worshiped idols.[4]
3. Authority, Right.—In those nations where the ruling authority had the proper conception of the Almighty, there was a strong, persistent growth of law upon the basis of natural right; while in the pagan nations laws were arbitrary and despotic.[5]
4. Philosophical Foundations.—The laws of Greece, down to the time of Plato, were thoroughly pagan. But, following the philosophical foundations laid by Plato and Aristotle, unintentionally and unwittingly the laws of Greece became imbued with the spirit of natural law.[6]
5. Rome, Natural Justice.—Prior to the introduction of Grecian law into Rome, the laws of that nation were pagan. Grecian law from its introduction to the time of Octavius was the civilizing element of the empire. Then it took a turn for the worse, the element of natural justice being reduced and the element of arbitrary rule becoming dominant.[7]
6. Canon Law.—We will now turn to the first period of canon law, which covers the early history of the Church up to the reign of Constantine the Great.[8]
Canon law is composed of the following elements:
1. Holy Scriptures;
2. Ecclesiastical tradition;
3. Decrees of Councils;