Justinian about 1110 to 1115, and soon attracted large numbers of students
to hear his interpretations. About this same time the _Digest_, much the
largest and most important part of the old law, was discovered and made
known. [17]

This gave clearness to the whole, as before its discovery the study of
Roman law was like the study of Aristotle when only parts of the _Organon_
were known. Irnerius and his co-laborers at Bologna now collected and
arranged the entire body of Roman civil law (_Corpus Juris Civilis_) (R.
93), introduced the _Digest_ to western Europe, and thus made a new
contribution of first importance to the list of possible higher studies.
Law now ceased to be a part of Rhetoric (p. 157) and became a new subject
of study, with a body of material large enough to occupy a student for
several years. This was an event of great intellectual significance. A new
study was now evolved which offered great possibilities for intellectual
activity and the exercise of the critical faculty, while at the same time
showing veneration for authority. Law was thus placed alongside Theology
as a professional subject, and the evolution of the professional lawyer
from the priest was now for the first time made possible.

CANON LAW ALSO ORGANIZED AS A SUBJECT OF STUDY. Inspired by the revival of
the study of civil law, a monk of Bologna, Gratian by name, set himself to
make a compilation of all the Church canons which had been enacted since
the Council of Nicaea (325) formulated the first twenty (p. 96), and of
the rules for church government as laid down by the church authorities.
This he issued in textbook form, about 1142, under the title of _Decretum
Gratiani_. So successful were his efforts that his compilation was "one of
those great textbooks that take the world by storm." It did for canon
(church) law what the rediscovery of the Justinian _Code_ had done for
civil law; that is, it organized canon law as a new and important teaching