Ancient Laws of Ireland - Volume 1: Senchus Mor

I. SMALL PRIMER.

The introductory remarks show the influence of Civil Law and a desire on the part of the writer to demonstrate his familiarity with the Latin language. The tripartite analysis of "judgement" into truth, law, and nature—whatever the exact reference of these words may be—runs parallel to that given in the Digest: privatum ius tripertitum est: collectum etenim est ex naturalibus præceptis aut gentium aut civilibus Original: "Private law is three-fold; it is collected from natural precepts, or those of nations, or civil law.". Along with the Civil Law, the author had notions about the Canon Law; though it is possible his acquaintance with either Civil or Canon law was very limited. In any case, immediately after this discussion of "judgement," the writer proceeds to a distinction analogous to that in the Institutes (I. 3, de iure personarum) by formulating two classes: saer (free) and daer (unfree). This is literally the omnes homines aut liberi sunt aut servi Original: "All men are either free or slaves." of Gaius (Digest I. V., 3).

But he quickly moves into the details of his own customary regulations, with which he was no doubt infinitely more familiar: the saer is the wealthy person from whom chattels are received in daer-stock; the daer is the man who receives this stock and owes service for it. This did not involve a rigid line marked by conditions of birth and descent, for "a man can be better than the man from whom he sprang"—for instance, when the son of a man of the Feine-grade (peasant or freeman class) becomes a bishop or a doctor of law.

After this, the writer proceeds to the details of the saer-grades (the noble/free classes), namely the church, chiefs, and poets, with their various privileges in order. On page 31, the specific detail of the aire desa (a rank of nobility) begins, continuing up to the King.

In the case of church grades, "penance" is added, but otherwise their honour-price (the legal value assigned to a person's status) is analogous to that of the chiefs. The poet grades are referred to next, and this section ends with a general statement regarding the correlation between honour-price and property.

The writer then addresses the honour-price, not of the individual, but of his household, his wife, son, steward (or the prior of a church), with details of variation in the amount of honour-price in the case of wives and servants.