Cujacius

Cujacius (properly De Cajas), JACQUES, a distinguished teacher of canon law, was born in 1522, at Toulouse. He became in 1554 a professor of law at Cahors, in 1555 at Bourges, in 1567 at Valence, and in 1575 again at Bourges. The civil war in France induced him shortly after to go to Paris, where he also received permission to give lectures on law. In 1577 he once more returned to Bourges, where he thenceforth remained, notwithstanding the most profitable offers from the University of Bologna. He died Oct. 4,1590. Cujacius was the most famous teacher of the Roman law in the sixteenth century, and his reputation attracted large numbers of students from all countries of Europe. He corrected numerous passages of the Roman law-books from the more than 500 manuscripts which he had collected, and a great many obscure points were by him for the first time elucidated. He gained the love of the thousands of his pupils to a rare degree by the affectionate attention which he paid to the welfare of each. From the theological controversies of his time he cautiously abstained, though he was always a steadfast adherent of the cause of Henry IV. In his will he referred his wife and his daughter to the letter of the pure Bible, without note or comment, as the sole rule of their faith. He published himself a collection of his works (Paris, 1577), which, however, is not complete. The editions by Colombet (Paris, 1617 and 1634) does likewise not contain all the works of Cujacius. A complete edition was prepared by Fabroti (Paris, 1658, 10 vols.), which has several times been reprinted, with some additions (latest edition, Prato, 13 vols. 1836). A life of Cujacius was published in 1590 by Papyrius Masson, but the best account of Cujacius is by Saint Prix (appendix to his work Histoire du droit Romain, Paris, 1821; an extract from this, in German, by Spangenberg, Cujacius u. seine Zeitgenossen, Leipz. 1822). — Brockhaus, Conversations-Lex. s. V.; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirch. — Lex. 2:933.