Latin was far from disappearing completely from the law. The 'Education Act' of 1496, which required the eldest sons of barons and freeholders to attend the schools of art and jure and study the laws in order that they might be better judges in the sheriff and other local courts, also provided that such sons should first obtain 'perfite Latin'at the grammar schools, without which, presumably, academic study of the laws would have been at least difficult. 30 As already noted, Lati ained a central role in conveyancing documentation until the nineteenth century; and when John Millar of Glasgow University gave up teaching Roman law in Latin in the later s something of a revolution. 3 Indeed, even at the present day there is a tte fonemi popular belief in Scotland that a qualification in Latin is a w necessary ission to a law degree and to become a lawyer. This may owe in the Scottis n legal tradit ion, naturally encouraging a atinity in lawyers' habits of thought and modes of expression that often manifested itself in the vernacular writings of the early modern period when authors moved quite naturally from Scots to Latin and back again within the course of a sentence. 32 But the rise of Scots to take its place in the law of Scotland alongside and often in place of Latin should not be seen in the simple lineal terms hinging round the late fourteenth century which the sketch just given may suggest. The written record, although obviously important and Signiticant ght, may obscure the role which Scots had already long enjoyed within the legal system, and it also may not do justice to the full complexity of legal linguistic developments. In particular, it may conceal the interaction between legal documents(texts records a d in the course of court procedure)and the spoken languages of those participating in legal process, whether in court or elsewhere. We must take account of at least three vernaculars in medieval Scotland, of which Scots is only one. The others are Gaelic and, less obviously French. (Probably we should add Flemish to this list, in the light of my earlier remarks about Flanders). The origins of the Scots common law lie, it seems to me, somewhere in the great twelfth-centur incursion of French-speaking Anglo-Normans under the patronage of kings who were said by contemporaries to 'be rather Frenchmen in race, manners, language and outlook... [and to] hold only Frenchmen dear and never to love their own people'. 33 The result was a society in which, like others on the frontiers of medieval Europe, various languages must have come into contact with one another in the law 30 APS,, p. 238(c. 3). The Act is generally linked to the foundation of King's College, Aberdeen, in 1495. and the laws'referred to are probably the Civil (or imperial) la ws; see H.L. MacQueen, The Foundation of Law Teaching at the University of Aberdeen', in The Civilian Tradition and Scots Law, ed. D.L. Carey Miller and R Zimmermann(Berlin, 1997), atp. 68 31 J.W. Cairns, Rhetoric, Language and Roman Law: Legal Education and Improvement in Eighteenth- Century Scotland', Law and History Review, ixs, (1991 ) p. 31. 32 See, e.g., A.L. Murray, Sinclair's Practicks' in Law-Making and Law-Makers in British History, ed. A. Harding (London, 1980),. 96: the rather engaging mixture of Scots and Latin in which the Pr acnicks are written... Sinclair was not lapsing from Latin into Scots but from Scots into Latin. A version of Sinclair's dland/d practicks is available at <http: //www.uni-leipz de/-iurarom/scotland/dat/sincla ir. htm> 33 A.O. Anderson, Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers AD 500 to 1286(repr. Stamford 1991), p. 330 n. 6(Walter of Coventry, sub anno 1212).Latin was far from disappearing completely from the law. The ‘Education Act’ of 1496, which required the eldest sons of barons and freeholders to attend the schools of ‘art and jure’ and study the laws in order that they might be better judges in the sheriff and other local courts, also provided that such sons should first obtain ‘perfite Latin’ at the grammar schools, without which, presumably, academic study of the laws would have been at least difficult.30 As already noted, Latin retained a central role in conveyancing documentation until the nineteenth century; and when John Millar of Glasgow University gave up teaching Roman law in Latin in the later eighteenth century, it was something of a revolution.31 Indeed, even at the present day there is a widespread although erroneous popular belief in Scotland that a qualification in Latin is a necessary prerequisite for admission to a law degree and to become a lawyer. This may owe something to the centrality of Roman law in the Scottish legal tradition, naturally encouraging a Latinity in lawyers’ habits of thought and modes of expression that often manifested itself in the vernacular writings of the early modern period when authors moved quite naturally from Scots to Latin and back again within the course of a sentence.32 But the rise of Scots to take its place in the law of Scotland alongside and often in place of Latin should not be seen in the simple lineal terms hinging round the late fourteenth century which the sketch just given may suggest. The written record, although obviously important and significant in its own right, may obscure the role which Scots had already long enjoyed within the legal system, and it also may not do justice to the full complexity of legal linguistic developments. In particular, it may conceal the interaction between legal documents (texts, records and writings required in the course of court procedure) and the spoken languages of those participating in legal process, whether in court or elsewhere. We must take account of at least three vernaculars in medieval Scotland, of which Scots is only one. The others are Gaelic and, less obviously, French. (Probably we should add Flemish to this list, in the light of my earlier remarks about Flanders). The origins of the Scots common law lie, it seems to me, somewhere in the great twelfth-century incursion of French-speaking Anglo-Normans under the patronage of kings who were said by contemporaries to ‘be rather Frenchmen in race, manners, language and outlook . . . [and to] hold only Frenchmen dear and never to love their own people’.33 The result was a society in which, like others on the frontiers of medieval Europe, various languages must have come into contact with one another in the law 30 APS, ii, p. 238 (c. 3). The Act is generally linked to the foundation of King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1495, and the ‘laws’ referred to are probably the Civil (or imperial) laws; see H.L. MacQueen, ‘The Foundation of Law Teaching at the University of Aberdeen’, in The Civilian Tradition and Scots Law, ed. D.L. Carey Miller and R. Zimmermann (Berlin, 1997), at p. 68. 31 J.W. Cairns, ‘Rhetoric, Language and Roman Law: Legal Education and Improvement in Eighteenth - Century Scotland’, Law and History Review, ix, (1991), p. 31. 32 See, e.g., A.L. Murray, ‘Sinclair’s Practicks’, in Law-Making and Law-Makers in British History, ed. A. Harding (London, 1980), p. 96: ‘ . . . the rather engaging mixture of Scots and Latin in which the Practicks are written . . . Sinclair was not lapsing from Latin into Scots but from Scots into Latin.’ A version of Sinclair’s Practicks is available at <http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~jurarom/scotland/dat/sinclair.htm>. 33 A.O. Anderson, Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers AD 500 to 1286 (repr. Stamford, 1991), p. 330 n. 6 (Walter of Coventry, sub anno 1212)