CHAP. I.J

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

29

into the wager of battle, which, if it led to the trialby jury, it is a curious and serpentine path; butin truth, the trial by jury came not circuitously, butdirectly from Scandinavia and the Goths, and wastheir own unwritten law, and no distinct profession,but was brought into England by the Anglo-Saxons as a whole people ; and though they becameChristians, they continued to content themselveswith that primitive institution, and one court forboth laymen and ecclesiastics. That the Gothswere acquainted with writing, not only before theycame to Scandinavia, but even previous to theirleaving the Euxine, is no proof that they did notexplain their laws orally. Their common law andits chief institutes were both written and oral.Neither canon law, nor pandects had penetratedinto Scandinavia ; but William, who had learnedthe continental fashion, introduced two courts, onefor church, and one for laity ; Justinian for these,and decretals for those. Was it not a carnal error?What before had been heriot, became Norman relief.If the former was a grievance, this other was tentimes worse. Later even, the English gentry leda sorry existence; no foreign luxuries, few or nomale servants, save a clown for the wretchedfarm, ugly horses, and no carriages with fourwheels, springs not to be thought of, little wine,