ABSTRACT
The northern system differed from Italy's because these scribes were tied more directly to government. Specific governmental offices also began early to produce manuals treating the history, practices and legal implications of their functions. Government also required public registration of the statutes of business companies and partners names. Governments also put together books containing privileges, administrative orders, judicial decisions and legislation. The popes legislated by publishing the canons or laws decided on in council. The north was slower to accept Roman law and even bridled at canon law. Not being as unified, France had no 'common law' like England's but instead provincial laws. As a result, these 'foreign laws' filled up the cracks. One common law was canon law. By 1150, the Camaldolese monk Gratian had compiled the basic collection of conciliar canons, papal letters and patristic sources called the Concordance of Discordant Canons or Decretum.
