Volume 1

Microcosm of London / [Anon].

Date:
[1808-1811]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Microcosm of London / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    236/248 page 224
    to the safety of the individuals who venture to utter them, and which must ultimately lead to the introduction of restraints upon an amusement, that, with a little more prudence, may be highly beneficial, as it certainly is congenial to the English character. DOCTORS’ COMMONS Is situate in Great Knight-Rider-street, to the south of St. Paul’s Cathedral. It is the college of civilians, where the civil law is studied and practised, and derives its name from the civilians commoning together as in other colleges. Here are kept the courts which have cognizance of injuries of an ecclesiastical, military, and maritime nature. During the period of the Saxon government, ecclesiastical and civil power went hand in hand; the bishop of the diocese, with the alderman or sheriff, sat together, and the dignity of the one was supported by the power of the other. The ecclesiastical policy of the continent introduced with William the Con- queror, soon occasioned the separation of the ecclesiastical from the civil power, and the Saxon laws, which abounded with the spirit of freedom and liberty, were soon overpowered by the Norman justiciaries. At the accession of Henry I. this union of the courts wras re-established; but the power - of Archbishop Anselm obtained from the famous Synod of Westminster (3d Henry I.) a decree, which soon effected its dissolution. This separation was more fully confirmed in the oath imposed by the clergy, who brought in the usurper Stephen, in
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3