J H Baker
Monuments of Endlesse Labours is an account of the evolution of a distinct tradition and literature of English canon law. The study and teaching began in England in the twelfth century, and during the thirteenth a profession of practising canonists arose. Their expertise was not confined to ecclesiastical matters in a narrow sense, but extended into such important fields as marriage and probate.
Taking the work of individual canonists in
turn, from William Paull and William Bateman in the fourteenth century
to Stephen Lushington and Sir Robert Phillimore in the nineteenth, J.H.
Baker assesses the various different contributions to this national tradition
made by original thinkers, writers, compilers, editors and judges. The
survival for so long of a distinct legal system parallel to the common
law, which nevertheless touched in many vital respects the lives of everyone
in England, makes the story of English ecclesiastical law an essential
part of English legal history.
208 pages 20 illus 1998
1 85285 167 8 Cased £25.00
