justitia et prudentia, kapitel 7 368 It was up to the individuals themselves to defend the interests of their heirs to the best of their ability and judgement. In several areas, the Swedish law of wills was characterised simultaneously by both tradition and innovation in a situation where the medieval laws of inheritance, with their focus on the demands of family and relatives, faced new legal doctrines. During the period studied, the links to the past were important and medieval legal traditions had an effect on the development of the law concerning wills in the early modern period. However, tradition is not a static concept, but is subject to continuous change, as the rulings of the Svea Court of Appeal make clear when it adapts its legal position based originally on the medieval laws of town and province by referring to new legal doctrines embodied in natural law. During the period in question, the Svea Court of Appeal altered its own practice in several areas concerning the law of wills in order to deal with the legal problems arising during the course of the century. Furthermore, reigning monarchs issued a number of new orders in council with the aim of creating a unified legal practice. Three factors in particular influenced the legal culture of the court of appeal and law-making with regard to the Swedish law of wills in the early modern period. Firstly, religion influenced the nature of the law of wills. Even if the formal power of canon law vanished after the Reformation, the tradition of donations for spiritual purposes lived on and provided a foundation for the worldly will. Following the Reformation, it was felt desirable to eradicate the heritage of the Catholic Church and this was explicitly expressed with regard to the law of wills, as various law review commissions distanced themselves distinctly from the ”papist” elements of previous rules. Though the Reformation had reduced the role of the Catholic Church, the culture of accepting canon law survived in some areas. Despite its origins in canon law, the church code of the Uppland provincial laws was referred to as a source of law in cases of disputed wills well into the 1670s. The Charter of Wills from 1686 was based (explicitly) on the praxis of the courts of appeal in the immediately preceding decades, and the praxis of the courts were based (not so explicitly) on old traditions and the previous influence of the Church. This was noticeable, not least, in the religious invocations which could still be found in the majority of deeds of will well into the 18th century. A comparison can bemade with the situation in England during the 17th century. Recently, English scholars have emphasised the continuity of
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=