Jump to content

Where's Westros' Corpus Juris Civilis?


hnv

Recommended Posts

btw note that Essosian culture is ripe with law, in Dorne which is the most Essosian of all Westros we have justiciars and Arianna has a book about Dorinish law in her tower chamber confinement 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/6/2019 at 6:50 PM, hnv said:

The septons had thousands of years to develop an advance canon law.

Wander around Westeros, step in villages and ask who the local lord is, like our characters do on their warpaths and wanderings. Almost invariably, the reply is a local secular and hereditary lord or landed knight. Quiet Isle exists, but is rare.

Walk around medieval Europe and do the same. And while secular lords are also a majority, you will hear plenty of other stuff. Bishops, cathedral chapters, monasteries, nunneries... As of Domesday Book, Church owned 25 % of England. As of Dissolution, over 30 %, I think. Not rare in rest of Europe. Not universal, but I think it was above 10 % everywhere.

 

A monastery or a bishop owning multiple villages, employing stewards at each manor and supporting multiple literate monks or canons at headquarters can engage in keeping (and forging!) charters and developing canon law in a way a lone septon supported at the mercy of a lord cannot. It was abbots not chaplains who developed canon law in Europe - and we see conspicuously few abbots and bishops in Westeros.

On 7/6/2019 at 6:50 PM, hnv said:

The maesters being the closest to academics we see in all of planetos ask no question of law, ethics, or political philosophy. We have a medieval society with the intellectual depth of a Bronze Age society,

There are 300 white ravens sent around Westeros. 300 is a likely grand total for the castles employing maesters. Add the trainees and teachers at Oldtown, which is likely under 200 all taken together.

Compare Paris University, probably 3000 students by 1200.

Oh, there WAS medieval society with more comparable intellectual depth. The Dark Ages before the 12th century renaissance.

On 7/6/2019 at 6:50 PM, hnv said:

it’s very possible to question the likelihood of the westrosi society considering their lack of developed normative concepts.

 

where’s Plato or Aristotle of Westeros? It is bizarre that warriors are remembered more than the intellectuals

Forgetting intellectuals is not bizarre. King Arthur? Nibelungs? Charlemagne and Roland?

What is odder is - where is Saint Patrick of Westeros? Because the Dark Ages Europe may not have remembered intelligence, but they did remember reputed wonders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...