OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

people, and the decrees of the senate, succeed- chap.

ed to the authority of the text; and the text.

was abandoned, as an useless, though vener-able relic of antiquity. The Code, the Pan­ dects , and the Institutes, were declared to bethe legitimate system of civil jurisprudence;they alone were admitted in the tribunals, andthey alone were taught in the academies ofRome , Constantinople , and Berytus. Justinian addressed to the senate and provinces his eter-nal oracles; and his pride, under the mask ofpiety, ascribed the consummation of this greatdesign to the support and inspiration of theDeity .

Since the emperor declined the fame and en- Praise andvy ot original composition, we can only require the codeat his hands, method, choice, and fidelity, the ^cu.* 11 "humble, though indispensable virtues of acompiler. Among the various combinations ofideas, it is difficult to assign any reasonablepreference; but as the order of Justinian is dif-ferent in his three works, it is possible that allmay be wrong; and it is certain that two can-not be right. In the selection of ancient laws,he seems to have viewed his predecessors with-out jealousy, and with equal regard: the seriescould not ascend above the reign of Hadrian ,and the narrow distinction of paganism andChristianity , introduced by the superstition ofTheodosius , had been abolished by the consentof mankind. But the jurisprudence of the pan-dects is circumscribed within a period of anhundred years, from the perpetual edict to thedeath of Severus Alexander ; the civilians who