| [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English], from [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] dōm; akin to Old High German tuom condition, [[state]], [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] dōn to do | | [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English], from [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] dōm; akin to Old High German tuom condition, [[state]], [https://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] dōn to do |
− | [[Writing]] in the [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/8th_Century eighth century], the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede Venerable Bede] comments that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelbert_of_Kent King Æthelberht], "beside all other benefits that he of [[wise]] [[policy]] bestowed upon his subjects, appointed them, with his [[council]] of wise men, [[judicial]] '''''dooms''''' according to the examples of the [[Romans]]."luxta exempla Romanorum" is the [[Latin]] phrase Bede uses here; the [[meaning]] of this [[statement]] has exercised the [[curiosity]] of historians for centuries. It was not, as with the continental Germanic tribes, that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelbert_of_Kent Æthelberht] had the [[law]] written down in [[Latin]]; rather, without precedent, he used his own [[native]] [[language]], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English Old English], to [[express]] the '''''dooms''''', or [[laws]] and [[judgement]]s, which had [[force]] in his kingdom. Some have speculated that "according to the examples of the Romans" simply meant that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelbert_of_Kent Æthelberht] had decided to cast the [[law]] in [[writing]], whereas previously it had always been a matter of [[Oral|unwritten]] [[tradition]] and [[custom]], handed down through [[generations]] through [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_transmission oral transmission], and supplemented by the edicts of kings. As such, Æthelberht's [[law]] code [[constitutes]] an important break in the [[tradition]] of Anglo-Saxon law: the body of Kentish legal customs, or at least a portion of them, were now [[represented]] by a [[written]] [[statement]] - fixed, unchanging, no longer subject to the vagueries of [[memory]]. [[Law]] was now something that could be pointed to, and, significantly, [[disseminated]] with ease. | + | [[Writing]] in the [https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/8th_Century eighth century], the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede Venerable Bede] comments that [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelbert_of_Kent King Æthelberht], "beside all other benefits that he of [[wise]] [[policy]] bestowed upon his subjects, appointed them, with his [[council]] of wise men, [[judicial]] '''''dooms''''' according to the examples of the [[Romans]]."luxta exempla Romanorum" is the [[Latin]] phrase Bede uses here; the [[meaning]] of this [[statement]] has exercised the [[curiosity]] of historians for centuries. It was not, as with the continental Germanic tribes, that [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelbert_of_Kent Æthelberht] had the [[law]] written down in [[Latin]]; rather, without precedent, he used his own [[native]] [[language]], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English Old English], to [[express]] the '''''dooms''''', or [[laws]] and [[judgement]]s, which had [[force]] in his kingdom. Some have speculated that "according to the examples of the Romans" simply meant that [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelbert_of_Kent Æthelberht] had decided to cast the [[law]] in [[writing]], whereas previously it had always been a matter of [[Oral|unwritten]] [[tradition]] and [[custom]], handed down through [[generations]] through [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_transmission oral transmission], and supplemented by the edicts of kings. As such, Æthelberht's [[law]] code [[constitutes]] an important break in the [[tradition]] of Anglo-Saxon law: the body of Kentish legal customs, or at least a portion of them, were now [[represented]] by a [[written]] [[statement]] - fixed, unchanging, no longer subject to the vagueries of [[memory]]. [[Law]] was now something that could be pointed to, and, significantly, [[disseminated]] with ease. |
− | Whatever were the exact [[motives]] for making [[oral]] [[law]] into written code, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelbert_of_Kent King Æthelberht's] law code was the first of a long series of [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo_Saxon Anglo-Saxon] law codes that would be published in England for the next four and a half centuries. Almost without exception, every official version of royal [[law]] issued during the Anglo-Saxon period was written in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English Old English]. | + | Whatever were the exact [[motives]] for making [[oral]] [[law]] into written code, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelbert_of_Kent King Æthelberht's] law code was the first of a long series of [https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo_Saxon Anglo-Saxon] law codes that would be published in England for the next four and a half centuries. Almost without exception, every official version of royal [[law]] issued during the Anglo-Saxon period was written in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English Old English]. |