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C I V 
C L A 
C L A 
CITIES, imperial, an appellation given to 
those cities of Germany immediately subject 
to the emperor: they make a part of the 
Germanic body, are governed by their own 
magistrates, have the privilege of coining 
money, and assist at the diet of the empire. 
They are 48 in all, and are distinguished in 
general by their prosperity and opulence. 
CIVET. SeeVivERRA. 
CIVIL LAW, is properly the peculiar law 
of each state; country, or city ; but what is 
usually meant by the civil law, is a body of 
laws composed out of the best Roman 
and Grecian laws, compiled from the laws of 
nature and nations, and for the most part 
received and observed throughout all the 
Roman dominions for above 1200 years. 
The Romans took the first grounds of this 
law from the twelve tables; which were 
abridgments of the laws of Solon, at Athens, 
and of other celebrated cities of Greece ; to 
which they added their own antient customs 
of the city of Rome. These written laws 
were subject to various interpretations, 
whence controversies arising, they were de- 
termined by the judgment of the learned; 
and these determinations were what they first 
called jus civile, after their several cases 
were composed, which, lest the people should 
make them at pleasure, were fixed, certain, 
and solemn ; and this part of their law they 
called actiones juris, cases at law. The Ro- 
mans had also their plebiscita, which were 
laws made by the commons, without the au- 
thority of the senate. The jus honorarium 
was an edict of some particular magis- 
trate, the senatus consultum an ordinance 
made by the sole authority of the senate, 
and the principalis constitutio was en- 
acted by the prince or emperor. These 
laws grew by degrees to a vast number of 
volumes, and therefore the emperor Justinian 
commanded his chancellor Trebonianus, with 
the assistance of some other eminent lawyers, 
to reduce them to a perfect body. 
The body of the civil law is divided into 
three volumes, which are still remaining, 
viz. the pandects or digests, the code, and 
the institutes : to these were afterwards added 
the authentics or constitutions of Justinian, 
called also novelise, or novels. See Code,&c. 
The civil law is not received at this day in 
any one nation, without some addition or 
alteration. For sometimes the feudal law is 
mixed with it, or general or particular cus- 
toms ; and often ordinances and statutes cut 
off a great part of it. In Turkey the Justi- 
nian Greek code is only used. In Italy, the 
canon law and customs have excluded a good 
part of it. In Venice, custom has almost 
an absolute government. In the Milanese, 
the feudal law and particular customs bear 
sway. In Naples and Sicily, the constitutions 
and laws of the Lombards are said to pre- 
vail. In Germany and Holland, the civil 
law is esteemed to be the municipal law ; 
but yet many parts of it are there grown ob- 
solete. and others are altered, either by the 
canon law, or a different usage. In Friez- 
land it is observed with more strictness ; but 
in the northern parts of Germany, the jus 
Saxonicum, Lubecense, orCulmense, is pre- 
ferred to it. In Denmark and Sweden it has 
scarcely any authority at all. In France only 
a part of it is received, and that part is in 
some places as a customary law ; and in those 
provinces nearest to Italy, the municipal 
written law. In criminal cases the civil law 
is more regarded in France: but the manner 
ol trial is regulated by ordinances and edicts. 
T he civil law in Spain and Portugal is cor- 
rected by the jus reg’uun, and custom. In 
Scotland the statutes of the sederunt, part of 
the regia: majestatis, and their customs, con- 
troul the civil law. In England it is used 
in the ecclesiastical courts, in the courts of 
the admiralty, and in the two universities : 
yet in all these it is restrained and directed 
by the common law. 
Civil year is the legal year, or annual 
account of time, which every government 
appoints to be used within its own domi- 
nions ; and is so called in contradistinction 
to the natural year, which is measured by 
the revolution of the heavenly bodies. 
CIVILIAN, in general, denotes some- 
thing belonging to the civil law, but more 
especially the doctors and professors of it are 
called civilians. Of these we have a college 
or society in London, known by the name of 
doctors’-commons. 
CLACK, among countrymen. To clack 
wool is to cut off the sheep’s mark, which 
makes the weight less, and yields less custom 
to the king. 
CLAIM, in law, a challenge of interest in 
any tiling that is in the possession of another, 
or at least out of a man’s own ; as claim by 
charter, by descent, &c. By stat. 4 Anne 
c. 16. sect. 16. no claim or entry shall he of 
force to avoid any fine levied with proclama- 
tion in the common-pleas, or in the court of 
session in the counties palatine, or of grand 
session in Wales, or shall be a sufficient en- 
try to claim within the statute of limitation, 
21 Jac. l.c. 16. unless upon such entry or 
claim, an action be commenced within one 
year after making such entry or claim, and 
prosecuted with effect. Plowd. 359. 
CLAMP, in a ship, denotes a piece of 
timber applied to a mast or yard, to prevent 
the wood from bursting; and also a thick 
plank lying fore and aft under the beams of 
the first orlop, or second deck, and is the 
same that the rising timbers are to the deck. 
Clamp is likewise the term for a pile of 
unburnt bricks built up for burning. 
CLAMPING, in joinery, is the fitting a 
piece of board with the grain, to another 
piece of board cross the grain. Thus the 
ends of tables are commonly clamped, to 
prevent their warping. 
CLANS, in history, and particularly in 
that of Scotland. The nations which over- 
ran Europe were originally divided into 
many small tribes; and when they came to 
parcel out the lands which they had conquer- 
ed, it was natural for every chieftain to be- 
stow a portion, in the first place, upon those 
of his own tribe or family. These all held 
their lands of him ; and as the safety of each 
individual depended on the general union, 
these small societies clung together, and were 
distinguished by some common appellation, 
either patronymical or local, long before the 
introduction of surnames or ensigns armo- 
rial. But when these became common, the 
descendants and relations of every chieftain 
assumed the same name and arms with him. 
Other vassals were proud to imitate their ex- 
ample; and by degrees they were communi- 
cated to all those who held of the same su- 
perior. Thus clanships were formed; and 
in a generation or two that consanguinity] 
which was at first in a great measure imagi- 
nary, was believed to lx: real. An artificial 
union was converted into a natural one. Men 
willingly followed a leader, whom they re- 
garded both as the superior of their lands 
and the chief of their blood, and served him 
not only with the fidelity of vassals, but the 
affection of friends. Against such men a 
king contended with great disadvantage ; and 
that cold service which money purchases, or 
authority extorts, was not an equal match 
for their ardour and zeal. Some imagine the 
word clan to be only a corruption of the Ro- 
man colonia; but Mr. Whitaker asserts it to 
be purely British, and to signify a family. 
CLARENCIEUX, the second king at 
arms, so called from the duke of Clarence, to; 
whom he first belonged ; for Lionel 111. som 
to Edward III. having b) his wife the honour 
of Clare, in the county of Thomond, was af- 
terwards declared duke of Clarence ; which 
dukedom afterwards escheating to Edward IV . \ 
lie made this earl a king at arms. His office! 
is to marshal and dispose of the funerals of 
all the lower nobility, as baronets, knights, 
esquires, on the south side ot the Trent ; 
whence he is sometimes called Surroy, or 
South-roy, in contradistinction to Norroy. 
CLARENDON- The constitutions of 
Clarendon are certain ecclesiastical laws 
drawn up at Clarendon, near Salisbury. They 1 
were sixteen in number, all tending to rest ram 
the power of the clergy ; and readily assented] 
to by ail the bishops and barons, the archbiij 
shop Becket excepted, who opposed them at 
first, but was afterwards prevailed upon to] 
sign them. The pope Alexander III. de- 
clared against and annulled most of them. 
CLARIFICATION, in chemistry, the act 
of clearing and fining any fluid from all hete- 
rogeneous matter or feculancies. See Che-J 
MISTRY. 
CLARION, a kind of trumpet, the tube of 
which is narrower, and its tone acuter and: 
shriller, than that of the common trumpet. ] 
It is said that the clarion, now used among] 
the Moors, and Portuguese who borrowed it] 
from the Moors, served antientlv for a treble] 
to several trumpets, which sounded tenor and i 
bass. 
Clarion, in heraldry, a bearing as repre-j 
sented: he bears ruby, three clarions topaz,] 
being tiie arms of the earl of Bath, by the] 
name of Granville. Guillimisof opinion,] 
that these three clarions are a kind of old-] 
fashioned trumpets; but others say that they] 
rather resemble the rudder ot a ship, others] 
a rest for a lance. 
CLARO-OBSCURO, or Clair-obscure,] 
in painting, the art of distributing to advan-J 
tage the lights and shadows of a piece, both] 
with regard to the easing of the eye, and the ] 
effect of the whole piece. See Painting. 
CLASS, an appellation given to the inert ’ 
general subdivisions of any thing; thus, in] 
the Limicean system, animals are divided! 
into six classes, viz. mammalia, aves, amphi- ! 
bia, pisces, insecta, and vermes; these are] 
again subdivided in orders, and these last] 
into genera. See Natural History. 
CLATHRUS, in botany, a genus of 
roundish fungi ; the substance of which is reti- ] 
dilated, or full of holes, somewhat like the | 
meshes of a net, with continuous ramifica- 1 
tion. There are seven species. 
