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  • March 1, 1880
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The Masonic Magazine, March 1, 1880: Page 12

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    Article THE LAWS OF THE CRUSADERS IN CYPRUS. Page 1 of 1
Page 12

Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

The Laws Of The Crusaders In Cyprus.

THE LAWS OF THE CRUSADERS IN CYPRUS .

A LECTURE on this subject , founded by the merchants of London in honour of John Ingrain Travers , was delivered at the London Institution , Finsbury Circus , by Sir Trai'ers Twiss , AVIIO introduced it by sketching the history of the island from its colonisation at a A'ery early period by Phoenician settlers from Tyre clown to the Third Crusade , during ii'hich our own Richard I . wrested it from tbe

Byzantinessubsequentltransfering-, y it to Guy , the founder of the Lusignan dynast )' . There was , the lecturer said , a manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris unique of its kind and . never yet published , which contained the code of laws under which the Greek inhabitants of Cyprns were living shortly before Richard ' s conquest . It was a small quarto written in the 13 th century , aud began with Pope Alexander IV . ' s famous Cypriot Constitution , establishing the supremacy of the Latin

bishops in the island over those of the Greek rite . The date of this Bull was 1260 , and it remained in force as long as the Franks ruled the island . Next came some verses on the relative duties of judge and advocate , after which followed 19 chapters of law in Greek , the 17 th and 18 th containing provisions on maritime law identical with those of the Basilica , or Imperial Byzantine Code , and thus carrying us back to the times anterior to Richard ancl Guy cle

Lusignan . Under Guy the nobles and the commons had each their own system of laws , ivhich ivere termed "Assises , " the history of which laws was singularly illustrative of the vitality of a legal system based on the principle of trial by one ' s peers . The origin of these laAvs was traced back to the First Crusade . On the election of Godfrey cle Bouillon in 1099 to the throne of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem , his first care was to draw up a body of laws for the government of his subjects . These consisted of two very different bodies of men—namely , an organized body of barons and knights , with their armed

retainers ; ancl a heterogeneous body of footmen , " la gent a pie , " who folloived in the Avake of the fighting men ancl owned no military chief . The former had left their counterpart behind them in Western Europe ; the latter were a novel development of industrial life , merchants and mariners , handicraftsmen ancl cultivators of the soil , who had quitted their homes from a desire to improve their condition of life , ancl ivere not disposed to acquiesce in a system of political dependence such as they had now outgrown in their new career of

perilous adventure . The result ivas that two distinct systems of jurisprudence Avere compiled ; hence two systems of judicature , and two books of its principles , entitled respectively the "Book of the Assises of the Hi gh Court " ancl the " Book of the Assises of the Court of the Burghers of Commons . " These books were deposited ivith much solemnit y in a chest within the Church of the Holy Sepulchrewhence they were styled " Lettres dc

, Scpulcre . " Before concluding with a few words on the present administration of Cyprus , it was remarked that we were taught by the preservation of the Assises of Jerusalem to the present clay the same lesson which Ave learn from the preservation of Bracton ' s " Treatise on the Laws and Customs of England . " The A'alue of both ivorks consists in the fact that they are compilations not of laws , but of jurisprudence . What may have been the

precise contents of the original ' Lettres de Sepulcre , " whether they were as meagre as the Great Charters of our Angevin kings , must remain matter of conjecture . What gave them value ivas the spirit in which they were administered , ancl the procedure by which what Avas good and just ancl equitable in them was implanted in the memory of each generation , and became dear to thorn as a legacy of ancestral usages .

“The Masonic Magazine: 1880-03-01, Page 12” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 28 May 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmg/issues/mmg_01031880/page/12/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
THE RECORDS OF AN ANCIENT LODGE. Article 1
THE OLD CHARGES OF THE BRITISH FREEMASONS. Article 6
AS WE MAKE IT. Article 11
THE LAWS OF THE CRUSADERS IN CYPRUS. Article 12
MASONIC STORIES. Article 13
A MASONIC DREAM. Article 14
A STRANGE LANGUAGE. Article 17
THE MYSTIC CHORD. Article 18
" GREAT ANNIVERSARY SPELL. Article 20
THE UNIVERSALITY OF MASONRY. Article 24
THE LONDON LIVERY COMPANIES. Article 25
CHURCH BELLS AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS. Article 26
THE MASONIC VETERANS' ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL NEW YORK. Article 29
FOUND. Article 33
LITTLE BRITAIN. Article 34
OUR GRAND BROTHERHOOD. Article 38
A CATALOGUE OF MASONIC BOOKS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Article 41
NORAH'S REMONSTRANCE. Article 44
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

The Laws Of The Crusaders In Cyprus.

THE LAWS OF THE CRUSADERS IN CYPRUS .

A LECTURE on this subject , founded by the merchants of London in honour of John Ingrain Travers , was delivered at the London Institution , Finsbury Circus , by Sir Trai'ers Twiss , AVIIO introduced it by sketching the history of the island from its colonisation at a A'ery early period by Phoenician settlers from Tyre clown to the Third Crusade , during ii'hich our own Richard I . wrested it from tbe

Byzantinessubsequentltransfering-, y it to Guy , the founder of the Lusignan dynast )' . There was , the lecturer said , a manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris unique of its kind and . never yet published , which contained the code of laws under which the Greek inhabitants of Cyprns were living shortly before Richard ' s conquest . It was a small quarto written in the 13 th century , aud began with Pope Alexander IV . ' s famous Cypriot Constitution , establishing the supremacy of the Latin

bishops in the island over those of the Greek rite . The date of this Bull was 1260 , and it remained in force as long as the Franks ruled the island . Next came some verses on the relative duties of judge and advocate , after which followed 19 chapters of law in Greek , the 17 th and 18 th containing provisions on maritime law identical with those of the Basilica , or Imperial Byzantine Code , and thus carrying us back to the times anterior to Richard ancl Guy cle

Lusignan . Under Guy the nobles and the commons had each their own system of laws , ivhich ivere termed "Assises , " the history of which laws was singularly illustrative of the vitality of a legal system based on the principle of trial by one ' s peers . The origin of these laAvs was traced back to the First Crusade . On the election of Godfrey cle Bouillon in 1099 to the throne of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem , his first care was to draw up a body of laws for the government of his subjects . These consisted of two very different bodies of men—namely , an organized body of barons and knights , with their armed

retainers ; ancl a heterogeneous body of footmen , " la gent a pie , " who folloived in the Avake of the fighting men ancl owned no military chief . The former had left their counterpart behind them in Western Europe ; the latter were a novel development of industrial life , merchants and mariners , handicraftsmen ancl cultivators of the soil , who had quitted their homes from a desire to improve their condition of life , ancl ivere not disposed to acquiesce in a system of political dependence such as they had now outgrown in their new career of

perilous adventure . The result ivas that two distinct systems of jurisprudence Avere compiled ; hence two systems of judicature , and two books of its principles , entitled respectively the "Book of the Assises of the Hi gh Court " ancl the " Book of the Assises of the Court of the Burghers of Commons . " These books were deposited ivith much solemnit y in a chest within the Church of the Holy Sepulchrewhence they were styled " Lettres dc

, Scpulcre . " Before concluding with a few words on the present administration of Cyprus , it was remarked that we were taught by the preservation of the Assises of Jerusalem to the present clay the same lesson which Ave learn from the preservation of Bracton ' s " Treatise on the Laws and Customs of England . " The A'alue of both ivorks consists in the fact that they are compilations not of laws , but of jurisprudence . What may have been the

precise contents of the original ' Lettres de Sepulcre , " whether they were as meagre as the Great Charters of our Angevin kings , must remain matter of conjecture . What gave them value ivas the spirit in which they were administered , ancl the procedure by which what Avas good and just ancl equitable in them was implanted in the memory of each generation , and became dear to thorn as a legacy of ancestral usages .

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