Zasius and Luther.
[24] Ranke, History of the Reformation in Germany (transl. Austin), vol. II., pp. 97-8.
The French lawyers and the Reformation.
[25] The Nihil hoc ad edictum praetoris! is currently ascribed to Cujas, but the ultimate authority for the story I do not know. See Brissaud, Histoire du droit français, p. 355: ‘La science laïque déclarait par la bouche d’un de ses plus grands représentants qu’elle n’était plus l’humble servante de la théologie; elle affirmait sa sécularisation.’ It seems that Cujas (‘wie beinahe alle Rechtsgelehrten seiner Zeit’) at first sided with the Reformers, but that he afterwards, at least outwardly, made his peace with the Catholic church (Spangenberg, Jacob Cujas und seine Zeitgenossen, Leipz. 1822, p. 162; Haag, La France protestante, ed. 2, vol. IV., col. 957-970). Doneau was a Calvinist; driven from France by Catholics and from Heidelberg by Lutherans, he went to Leyden and ultimately to Altdorf. Hotman was a Calvinist, intimately connected with the church of Geneva. Baudouin was compelled to leave France for Geneva, whence he went to Strassburg and Heidelberg; but he quarrelled with Calvin and was accused of changing his religion six times. Charles Du Moulin also had been an exile at Tübingen. It is said that after a Calvinistic stage he became a Lutheran; on his death-bed he returned to Catholicism: such at least was the tale told by Catholics. (See Brodeau, La vie de Maistre Charles Du Molin, Paris, 1654; Haag, La France protestante, ed. 2, vol. V., col. 783-789.) To say the least, he had been ‘ultra-gallican.’ (Schulte, Geschichte der Quellen des canonischen Rechts, vol. IV., p. 251.) Of Le Douarin also it is said ‘il était réformé de cœur’ (La France protestante, ed. 2, vol. V., col. 508). ‘Die grosse Mehrzahl der hervorragenden Juristen bekannte sich mit grösserer oder geringerer Entschiedenheit zur Partei der Hugenotten’ (Stintzing, Geschichte der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft, vol. I., p. 372).
[26] Stintzing, Geschichte der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft, vol. I., p. 284.
Francis Hotman and England.
[27] Elizabeth’s invitation to Hotman is mentioned in the Elogium of him prefixed to his Opera (1599), p. viii, and in Dareste’s essay (p. 5). His son John spent some time at Oxford. In 1583 John tells his father that at Oxford he has plenty of time for study ‘quamvis hic miris modis frigeat iuris civilis studium et mea hac in re opera nemini grata possit esse in Anglia’ (Hotomanorum Epistolae, Amstd., 1620, p. 325). In 1584 John was consulted along with Alberigo Gentili by the English government in the Mendoza case (Holland, Albericus Gentilis, pp. 14, 15). There is nothing improbable in the story that Francis was offered a post at Oxford. He must have been well known to Cecil. In 1562 he was active in bringing Condé into touch with Elizabeth and so in promoting the expedition to Havre. Condé’s envoy brought to Cecil a letter of introduction from Hotman (Foreign Calendar, 1561-2, p. 601). Baudouin also at this time was making himself useful to the English government. (See e.g. Foreign Calendar, 1558-9, p. 173; 1561-2, pp. 60, 367, 454, 481, 510.) It has been said that Queen Elizabeth spoke of Charles Du Moulin as her kinsman (Brodeau, Vie de C. Du Molin, p. 4). Whether in the pedigree of the Boleyns there is any ground for this story I do not know. See La France protestante, ed. 2, vol. V., col. 783. Sir Thomas Craig, who is an important figure in the history of Scotch law, sat at the feet of Baudouin, and Edward Henryson, who in 1566 became a lord of session, had been a professor at Bourges (Dict. Nat. Biog.).
Francis Hotman and Roman law.
[28] The Epistre adressée au tygre de la France, a violent invective against the Cardinal of Lorraine, still finds admirers among students of French prose. Apparently Hotman would have been the last man to preach a Reception of Roman law in England. Being keenly alive to the faults of Justinian’s books, he resisted the further romanization of French law, demanded a national code, admired the English limited monarchy, and by his Franco-Gallia made himself in some sort the ancestor of the ‘Germanists.’ Some of these ‘elegant’ French jurists were so much imbued with the historical spirit that in their hands the study of Roman law became the study of an ancient history. The following words cited and translated by Dareste from Baudouin (François Hotman, p. 19) have a wonderfully modern sound: ‘Ceux qui ont étudié le droit auraient pu trouver dans l’histoire la solution de bien des difficultés, et ceux qui ont écrit l’histoire auraient mieux fait d’étudier le développement des lois et des institutions, que de s’attacher à passer en revue les armées, à décrire les camps, à raconter les batailles, à compter les morts.’ ‘Sine historia caecam esse iurisprudentiam, disait Baudouin.’ (Brissaud, Histoire du droit français, p. 349).