ABSTRACT

THE RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION were European movements, with continuing historical effects; in the realms of religion and politics, England was a part of the continent. English institutions and English law, however, were less immediately affected by what happened elsewhere in Europe; and the continuity of English tradition is nowhere more evident than in her laws. Not only was law a matter of custom and record, but also the institutions of local and national government were traditionally record-minded. Among a litigious people even the family muniment room existed less for the sake of prestige than for the sake of protection. No interpretation of English historiography can fail to take account of the pervasive effects of the English legal tradition on English ideas of history.