VI "I'he role ot the C'ollege of Pontiffs in interpreting the law of the XII Tables is now more explicable. The Pontiffs were obviously partisan, but they were acceptable to the plebeians because of the established role of priests in legal proceedings. And in any event the piebeians had lost the fight for extreme law reform. Vet the Pontiffs were aristocratic and patrician. They did not want their state religion to be sullied bv common disputes. Thus, the state religion was central to aristocratic coufarreatio but the later modes of creating maims, nameU^ cocmptio, and usus, which were available to all the populace, ha\ e no role for religion. The oath in the stipulatio fell out of use, almost certainly before the XII 'Fables, but for a time the \’erb spondar, which implies an oath, remained as the sole verb for creating the contract. 'rhe almost total exclusion of religion from the XII 'Fables, and its very limited role in prixate law is unsurprising. Fhe state religion was not to be shared with common folk. VII 'Fo sum up. 1 hope I ha\ e given a plausible sketch of the coherence of prehistoric Roman law and the beginnings of law: the emergence of the unilateral stipulatio as the earliest contract, one that required no witnesses but inxolved an oath that disappeared; mancipatio, for the formal transfer of important kinds of property, involved no oath and required five witnesses; the illogical use of religion in the earliest civil action; the very limited role of religion in the developed law of the most religious people. .\11 this is deeply significant for the European Union. Law, once made, tends to surx ive and have I6I
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