The part which you quote, may draw on me the host of judges and divines.
They may cavil, but cannot refute it. Those who read Prisot's opinion
with a candid view to understand, and not to chicane it, cannot mistake
its meaning. The reports in the Year-books were taken very short. The
opinions of the judges were written down sententiously, as notes or
memoranda, and not with all the developement which they probably used in
delivering them. Prisot's opinion, to be fully expressed, should be thus
paraphrased. 'To such laws as those of holy church have recorded, and
preserved in their ancient books and writings, it is proper for us to
give credence; for so is, or so says, the common law, or law of the
land, on which all manner of other laws rest for their authority, or are
founded; that is to say, the common law, or the law of the land common
to us all, and established by the authority of us all, is that from
which is derived the authority of all other special and subordinate
branches of law, such as the canon law, law merchant, law maritime,
law of Gavelkind, Borough English, corporation laws, local customs and
usages, to all of which the common law requires its judges to permit
authority in the special or local cases belonging to them. The evidence
of these laws is preserved in their ancient treatises, books, and
writings, in like manner as our own common law itself is known, the
text-of its original enactments having been long lost, and its substance
only preserved in ancient and traditionary writings.
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