The Usatges of Barcelona: The Fundamental Law of Catalonia (The Middle Ages Series)

Before the rules of customary law were decreed, judges customarily ruled that all offenses, if they could not be overlooked, had to be settled for all time by oath, judicial battle, or ordeal of boiling or freezing water with the utterance of the following words: "I swear to you by God and these Holy Gospels that these offenses which I have committed against you, I thus did within my rights and by your negligence." Written during the first half of the twelfth century, The Usatges of Barcelona, is a reflection of the oral traditions of cutomary law as refashioned by literate clerics in service to the court. This is the first translation into English of this important work.