HISTORY OF LAW 253 



first necessity impelling to it was the practical one of bringing to- 

 gether the formal edicts, decrees, and constitutions 



Process 

 which had been promulgated as, and constituted the 



body of positive legislation. 



The first compilations of this character were made under private 

 authority during the fourth century, and are referred to collectively 

 as the Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes. But the first Early 

 official compilation was that of the Emperor Theo- Examples, 

 dosius II, who in 429 A. D. established a commission for the pre- 

 paration of such a compilation, although the work was not actually 

 promulgated until 438 as the result of the labors of a new commission. 

 As compared with the subsequent compilation of the whole law by 

 Justinian, which is known under the name of the Corpus Juris Civilis, 

 the code of Theodosius was crude and primitive. There was no 

 effort in its preparation to do more than put in authoritative form 

 the laws as distinct from the law. Nevertheless, the Theodosian Code 

 is of far more significance as affecting the first impetus toward 

 systematic jurisprudence in Europe than the Corpus Juris Civilis, for 

 upon it were founded the so-called barbarian codes of the various 

 Teutonic tribes who invaded and appropriated to themselves not 

 only the most of the territory over which the authority of the Western 

 Roman Empire had extended, but also to a large measure the 

 civilization which had been developed at Rome. 



The process of codification, however, was carried much further. 

 The emperors in absorbing, not only the general power of legislation, 

 but the whole of the power of expounding and adminis- Under the 

 tering the law, arrogated to themselves every function Empire, 

 of jurisprudence. They consolidated the praetorian edicts into one 

 perpetual edict to which the imperial sanction was imparted, and 

 thus combined judge-made law with written law, and they thereby 

 brought into the civil law the results of the recognition of the jus 

 gentium and the law of nature which had been developed out of the 

 exercise of jurisdiction by the praetors. Roman equity became 

 merged into Roman law, and so jealous was the Imperial authority 

 of any infringement of its prerogative as the source of law that 

 exposition was confined by express command to certain designated 

 jurisconsults, who alone were allowed to make responsus prudenlium. 

 The impotence of the sovereign power thus completely to shackle 

 the development of law by means of exposition was illustrated in 

 this attempt, for some of the most illustrious works of Roman juris- 

 prudence were written by those who never received the Imperial 

 authority, and the labors of unofficial jurists have been as fully 

 accepted in subsequent ages as constituting a part of the Roman 

 law as those of the official jurisconsults. 



The culmination of Roman codification was reached under Jus- 



