245 



VACARIUS. 



VAGA, PEKING DEL. 



"yACA'RIUS, a civilian, who taught the Roman law at Oxford in the 

 * reign of Stephen, about the middle of the 12th century. Of the 

 personal history of Vacarius little is known. In the anonymous 

 Norman Chronicle, which mentions him, and briefly notices a work 

 written by him, he is described as " gente Longobardus, vir honestus 

 et jurisperitus, qui leges Romanas anno ab incarnatione Domini 1149 

 in Anglia discipulos doceret." Being a Lombard by birth, it is highly 

 probably that he was brought up at the University of Bologna, which 

 at that time was in high reputation, and it is possible, as far as dates 

 are concerned, that he may have studied in the school of Irnerius. 

 Selden has fallen into an error respecting Vacarius, which has been 

 adopted from him by Heineccius, Duck, Montfaucon, and many other 

 eminent writers. He calls him Rogerius Vacarius, and supposes him 

 and Rogerius, abbot of Bee in Normandy, and also Rogerius Bene- 

 ventanus, a well-known glossator, to be one and the same individual. 

 (Selden ' Diss. ad Fletam, cap. vii., sec. 3-7.) It has been clearly 

 proved by recent German writers that Selden has in this respect con- 

 founded three separate persons, and that the mistake originated in the 

 false punctuation of a passage in the anonymous Norman Chronicle, 

 cited by Selden, in which both Vacarius and Rogerius, abbot of Bee, are 

 mentioned. (Wenck, * Magister Vacarius Primus Juris Romani in 

 Anglia Professor,' p. 3 ; Savigny, ' Geschichte des Romischen Rechts 

 im Mittelalter,' vol. iv., p. 348.) The time and occasion of Vacarius's 

 appearance in England are related by Gervase of Dover, who is 

 supposed by Selden to have written his Chronicle at the beginning of 

 the 13th century. Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, relying upon 

 the aid and advice of Thomas a Becket, who had himself studied the 

 Roman law at Bologna, appealed to Pope Celestin II. against the 

 king's brother, Henry, bishop of Winchester, who was legate to the 

 apostolical see, contending that, as archbishop of Canterbury, he was 

 legatus natus, and entitled of right to the legatine authority. This 

 appeal occasioned great litigation. " Oriuntur hinc inde," says Gervase 

 of Dover, "discordise graves, lites et appellationes antea inauditse. 

 Tune leges et causidici in Angliatn primo vocati sunt, quorum primus 

 erat Magister Vacarius. Hie in Oxonefordift legem docuit," &c. 

 (Twysden, ' Hist. Angl. Scriptores,' vol. ii., p. 1665.) As Celestin II. 

 died in September, 1143, within six months after his election to the 

 papacy, and as Pope Eugenius III. disposed of the subject of the 

 above appeal in 1146 in favour of Archbishop Theobald, the period of 

 the introduction of Vacarius and the Roman laws and lawyers into 

 England, as noticed by Gervase of Dover, must have been between 

 the years 1143 and 1146. In the Chronicle of Robertus de Monte (of 

 which the above-cited Norman Chronicle appears clearly to be merely 

 an imperfect abstract) it is expressly stated that Vacarius continued to 

 teach the Roman law in England in 1149, and that " many, both rich 

 and poor, resorted to him for instruction." The same authority goes 

 on to say that, " at the suggestion of the poorer students, Vacarius 

 composed nine books from the Code and Digests, which, for any person 

 perfectly acquainted with them, were sufficient to decide all disputed 

 points of law which usually came to be discussed in the schools." 

 (Savigny, ' Geschichte,' &c.) This latter expression no doubt refers to 

 the controversies on supposed propositions of law, which we know pre- 

 vailed as juridical exercises in the universities during the middle ages, 

 and which were probably derived immediately from the scholastic dis- 

 putations, though the general notion of them might possibly have been 

 handed down by tradition from the schools of rhetoricians at Rome. 

 The only other mention of Vacarius to be found in the meagre histo- 

 ries of those times is by John of Salisbury, in the book entitled ' Poli- 

 craticum, sive de Nugis Curialium.' which is supposed to have been 

 written about the year 1159. This writer, after inveighing against 

 kings who assumed to command the church and interfere with eccle- 

 siastical matters, says, " I have seen some who have thrown the books 

 of law into the fire, and have not scrupled to cut the laws (jura) and 

 canons to pieces if they fell into their hands. In the time of King 

 Stephen the Roman laws, which the house of the venerable Father 

 Theobald, primate of Britain, had brought into England, were ordered 

 out of the realm. Every man was forbidden by a royal edict to retain 

 the books of that law, and our" Vacarius was enjoined to silence. 

 Nevertheless, by the help of God, the virtue of that law more pre- 

 vailed in proportion as impiety sought to weaken it." (' Policrat.,' lib. 

 viii., c. 22.) 



A notice of Vacarius is chiefly important as connected with the 

 introduction of the Roman law into England at this early period, and 

 the great attention which it seems to have attracted. From the 

 passages above cited from contemporary writers, it is clear that a 

 foreign professor taught the civil law at Oxford in the reign of 

 Stephen, that his teaching was attended by great numbers of rich 

 and poor students, that for the use of the latter he composed a work 

 consisting of an abstract of the Code and Digest, that the effect of 

 bis teaching was sufficiently important to call for its suppression by a 

 Dyal edict, and that, notwithstanding that edict, the study of the 

 loman law continued to flourish exceedingly. With the slender 



information we possess respecting the history of this period, it is not 

 easy to ascertain with precision either the motives which induced 

 this zealous and persevering attention to a foreign system of juris- 

 prudence, or the practical uses to which the knowledge of it was 

 applied. No doubt the judges, delegates, advocates, and procurators 

 in the episcopal consistories must have been civilians ; but the number 

 of those who for this purpose required an acquaintance with the 

 Roman law could not have been sufficiently great to have constituted 

 so large and flourishing a school as that of Vacarius at Oxford. The 

 fact may perhaps be ascribed to a more general cause. We know 

 that the extraordinary impulse which had then recently been given to 

 the study of the Roman law at Bologna had been communicated to 

 the Continental universities of Europe, and that in all of them the 

 juridical disputations in the schools were pursued by great numbers 

 without any practical object, though with a degree of interest, and 

 even enthusiasm, which it is difficult for us to understand at the 

 present day, but which may in great measure be accounted for by the 

 paucity of other objects of polite learning in those ages. This feeling 

 was probably imported into England, and operated in the samn 

 manner at Oxford as in foreign universities. That the civil law was 

 not used as an authority in the English common law courts is evident 

 from the records of the Curia Regis which are in existence from the 

 time of Stephen, and which demonstrate that the law of the land was 

 the ancient customary law. Nevertheless the extent to which the 

 Roman law was studied and understood, and the manner in which it 

 was employed by writers in illustrating the common law and sup- 

 plying its deficiencies, are exemplified in the treatise of Glanville, and 

 still more remarkably in those of Bracton and Fleta. And indeed 

 Vacarius himself, who wrote in England and for English pupils, seems, 

 in an obscure passage of his work, to indicate the mode in which 

 these writers subsequently made use of the Roman law : " Quid pro- 

 hibet pauca veluti in collem aliquem, eis tnaxime, qui legibus istis non 

 utuntur, cumulare, ut infra septa justitise quasi ex loco eminent! con- 

 spiciendo, discant sine magno labore accedere ad optata." (Wenck's 

 " Magister Vacarius/ p. 87.) 



Several copies of Vacarius's work are still extant in manuscript. 

 The cathedral library at Prague contains a copy which Savigny says 

 he has seen, and of wbich Professor Wenck gives an account. Another 

 copy is in the town library at Bruges ; a third is in-the library at 

 Kbnigsberg ; and a fourth is the property of Professor Wenck at 

 Leipzig, and is particularly described in his work respecting Vacarius. 

 The book probably exists in other collections, and one would expect 

 to find it at Oxford; but as yet no other copies have been discovered. 

 The original title appears to have been as follows : ' Liber ex universo 

 enucleate jure exceptus, et pauperibus preesertim destinatus.' The 

 whole work consists of nine books, as stated in the Chronicles. These 

 books correspond as to their general subjects with the first nine books 

 of the Code, but the subdivisions are different, some of the titles being 

 taken from the Digest or from other books of the Code. The words 

 of the Code and the Digest are retained as the substance or text of 

 these titles, and a copious gloss accompanies it, composed partly of 

 passages taken from other sources of Roman law and partly of the 

 explanations and illustrations of the author. The work has little 

 value at the present day, except as the only remaining trace of an 

 English school of Roman law at the early period at which it was written. 

 It is described by Savigny in his history ; and Professor Wenck has 

 published a very copious abstract of it in his ' Magister Vacarius.' 



VADDER, LOUIS DE, a celebrated Flemish landscape-painter, 

 was born at Brussels in 1560. He excelled in representing the misty 

 atmosphere of his country, especially sunrise scenes ; his foliage also 

 was managed with great skill and truth, and he was very successful in 

 representing reflections in water, which he painted with remarkable 

 transparency. He etched some spirited plates after his own designs. 

 He died in Brussels in 1623. Vadder was the master of Lucas Acht- 

 schelling, who was also a clever landscape-painter. 



VAGA, PERI'NO DEL, or PIERINO BUONACCORSI, a celebrated 

 Italian painter, was born at Florence in 1500. He lost his parents 

 when very young, and was brought up in extreme poverty, but he 

 found a useful protector in the painter Andrea de' Ceri, who took him. 

 into his house and gave him employment. He worked afterwards for 

 Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, and finally with a Florentine painter of the name 

 of Vaga, who took him to Rome and recommended him to the notice 

 of Giulio Romano and Penni, whence he acquired his name of Pierino 

 del Vaga. Giulio Romano spoke favourably of Pierino's ability to 

 Raffaelle, who appointed him to assist Giovanni da Udine in the 

 arabesques and stucco-work of the loggie of the Vatican. He assisted 

 also Polidoro da Caravaggio in his chiaroscuri, and exhibited so much 

 ability that he became a great favourite with Raffaelle, who intrusted 

 him with the execution of some of his designs in fresco, and they are 

 amongst the best painted in the loggie. Pierino painted the ' Taking 

 of Jericho,' the ' Passage of the Jordan,' the ' Offering of Abraham/ 

 ' Jacob and the Angel/ ' Joseph and his Brethren/ and many others. 



