Editing Brocard (law) (section)

==History==
{{see also|Jus antiquum|Legal history of the Catholic Church}}
According to the dictionaries, the word is a variant of the [[Latinized name]] of [[Burchard of Worms]] (died AD 1025), Bishop of [[Worms, Germany]], who compiled 20 volumes of ''Ecclesiastical Rules'', although some sources disagree.{{sfn|Spargo|1948|pp=472-473}} Begun in AD 1008, the materials took Burchard four years to compile. He wrote it while living in a small structure on top of a hill in the forest outside Worms, after his defeat of Duke Otto and while raising his adopted child. The collection, which he called the ''Collectarium Canonum'' or ''Decretum'', became a primary source for [[canon law of the Catholic Church|canon law]].

Along with numerous documents from a variety of sources, including the [[Old Testament]] and [[Saint Augustine of Hippo]], Burchard included the ''[[Canon Episcopi]]'' in this collection, under the belief that it dated from an episcopal "Council of Anquira" in AD 314, but no other evidence of this council exists. Because of this inclusion, Burchard has been described as something of a rationalist. As the source of [[canon law]], Burchard's ''Decretum'' was supplanted around 1150 by the {{lang|la|[[Decretum Gratiani]]}}, a much larger collection that further attempted to reconcile contradictory elements of [[canon law]].

Burchard spent the years 1023 to 1025 promulgating ''Leges et Statuta Familiae S. Petri Wormatiensis'', a collection of religious laws he endorsed as just and hoped to have officially approbated.

Spargo points out that early compilations of brocards sometimes contained miscellaneous trivia in Latin, and a hard association of the term "brocard" with a legal maxim came later. As an example, he quotes a 1521 work published in Toulouse: {{langx|la|Armaria est locus ubi libri reponuntur}} (a bookcase is a place where the books are returned).{{sfn|Spargo|1948|p=475}}

Although the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] first came to [[Great Britain|Britain]] in [[Julius Caesar#Conquest of Gaul|55 BC]], [[Roman Law]] has had negligible influence<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://pdfsr.com/pdf/influences-of-roman-law-and-civil-law-on-the-common-law |title=Influences of Roman Law and Civil Law on the Common Law - PDFSR.com |access-date=2016-01-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160127110410/http://pdfsr.com/pdf/influences-of-roman-law-and-civil-law-on-the-common-law |archive-date=2016-01-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> on [[English common law]]. Latin legal phrases are used in English only because Latin was the ''[[lingua franca]]'' of the [[Medieval era]]. Although some of these phrases are in common use in law, such as ''[[res ipsa loquitur]]'', ''[[novus actus interveniens]]'', ''talem qualem'',<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195557558.001.0001/acref-9780195557558-e-3249|title=Australian Law Dictionary|first1=Trischa |last1=Mann|first2=Audrey |last2=Blunden|editor1-first=Trischa|editor1-last=Mann|editor2-first=Audrey|editor2-last=Blunden|date=June 12, 2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|via=www.oxfordreference.com|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195557558.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-555755-8}}</ref> ''[[de minimis non curat lex]]'', and  ''[[consensus ad idem]]'', the common law is not premised on the principles of [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]], and their use is being replaced by that of vernacular substitutes. For example, ''Black's Law Dictionary'' previously included numerous brocards among its entries.

Although the Romans did not conquer [[Scotland]], [[Scots Law]] is a mixed [[legal system]] in which "brocards are regarded as part of the common law".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.greyandcosolicitors.co.uk/glossary-of-scottish-legal-terms.asp |title=Glossary of Scottish Legal Terms |access-date=2021-06-14 }}</ref>

=== Etymology ===
{{Wiktionary|brocard}}
Multiple sources, including the [[Oxford English Dictionary]], derive the term from the name of [[Burchard of Worms|Bishop Burkhardt]], although contemporaneous [[Medieval Latin]] spelling was typically ''Burkhardus''.{{sfn|Spargo|1948|p=472}} Spargo in 1948 pointed out that [[Friedrich Carl von Savigny]], an 18th century authority on canon law, declared association to be solely due to a similarity in sound, and stated that the origin of the term is "very uncertain". So did the Encyclopédie des sciences ecclésiastiques in 1937.{{sfn|Spargo|1948|p=473}}