Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 25

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Volume 2, Page 25

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[001] a younger brother puts himself into seisin and dies so seised; he transmits to his
[002] heirs with the possessory right a certain proprietary right which should follow the
[003] principal proprietary [right], and so from heir to heir. The heirs of the first brother
[004] have a greater right than those of the second, but possession must always be
[005] preferred until the heirs of the first recover their right. If the younger brother has
[006] several sons and a younger son puts himself in seisin, what was said above is true
[007] of him. Thus proprietary right may descend to several different heirs [and to their
[008] heirs] ad infinitum, in such a way that though several have proprietary rights¹ one
[009] or several may have a greater right.>²

What jurisprudence is.

[011] ³Jurisprudence is the knowledge of things divine and human, the science of the
[012] just and unjust.⁴

What equity is.

[014] ⁵Equity is the bringing together of things, that which desires like right in like
[015] cases and puts all like things on an equality. Equity is, so to speak, uniformity, and
[016] turns upon matters of fact, that is, the words and acts of men. Justice, [on the
[017] other hand], lies in the minds of the just. Hence it is that if we wish to speak
[018] properly we will call a judgment equitable, not just, and a man just, not equitable.
[019] But using these terms improperly, we call the man equitable and the judgment just.⁶
[020] ⁷Jurisprudence therefore differs in many ways from justice. For jurisprudence
[021] discerns, justice awards to each his due. Justice is a virtue, jurisprudence a science.
[022] Justice is a certain summum bonum; jurisprudence a medium.⁸

What the praecepta iuris are.

[024] ⁹The praecepta iuris are three: to live virtuously, to injure no one, to give to each
[025] man his right.¹⁰ ¹¹[Rights are infinite], because men are infinite and things are infinite,
[026] but the kinds of law are [not] infinite, for we would then speak of equine and of
[027] asinine law, of the law of vineyards and that of fields, the law of Peter and that of
[028] John.¹² ¹³There is public law, which pertains to the common welfare¹⁴ of the Roman
[029] res publica and deals with religion, priests and public officers. For it is in the interest
[030] of the res publica that it have churches

Notes

1. ‘iura’ for ‘ius’, as infra iv, 351

2. Infra iv, 351: ‘maius ius aliis’

3. Br. and Azo, 27

3-4. Azo Summa Inst. 1.1, no. 6

5. Br. and Azo, 27

5-6. Azo, Summa Inst. 1.1, no. 7, from Placentinus, Summa Inst. 1.1; Carlyle ii, 8-10; Wohlhaupter, Aequitas Canonica, 13; Lange in Zeit. d. Sav. Stift. f. Rechtsgeschichte (Rom. abt.) lxxi, 321; Cortese, i, 306, ii, 30-31, 245 ff.

7. Br. and Azo, 27

7-8. Azo, Summa Inst. 1.1, no. 8; Cortese, ii, 5-8, 29-30

9. Br. and Azo, 27-29, 33

9-10. Azo, Summa Inst. 1.1, no. 9

11-12. Azo, Summa Inst., 1.1, no. 10: reading: ‘[Infinita sunt iura], quia infiniti sunt . . .res; infinitae vero [non] sunt iurisspecies, nam et sic diceretur’; cf. Kantorowicz, 82-5;Fesefeldt, 147 n.; Vinogradoff, Coll. Pap., i,243; ‘infinita sunt iura’: infraiii, 165, 166

14. G. Post in Speculum, xxix, 421

13-15. Azo, Summa Inst. 1.1, no. 11