In the Dark Ages, little distinction was made between statutory and common law. Since few could read, it made no sense to codify legal boundaries. ALL laws were passed down via tradition much more than by document. What few documented laws existed were principally derived from the teachings of the Church, and were Latin in origin. Most of our law remains rooted in the Latin for that very reason.
By the way, the presumption all along has been that Christianity did not reach England until around 700 A.D.. In point of historic fact, St. Augustine was dispatched on a mission to King Ethelbert of the Saxons at the end of the 6th century. The Archbishopric of Canterbury was established around then. Celtic churches were already well established in the northern regions of what is now Ireland and Scotland. The Synod of Whitby (664 A.D.) reconciled numerous differences between the Celtic and Roman churches.
Many of the legal (Saxon) traditions loosely defined as "common law" were destroyed when the feudal system was discarded and later with the Enlightenment. Jefferson and Co. were powerfully influenced by that novus ordo and rejected many antiquated notions, including the few shreds of pre-Christian common law that survived Charlemagne, Runymede, and Cromwell.
The Founders were also well acquainted with the Classics -- Plato, Aristotle, Livy, Marcus Aurelius -- and derived much of their political philosophy from them. Add to that the humanist mix just starting to emerge in the writings of Rosseau, Locke, and Hume, and it is disingenuous at best to trace our legal roots back solely to Saxon common law. It is most certainly simplistic to assert that our entire CULTURE derives from that root.
Other codified law also predates the 10 Commandments by about a thousand years (Urukagina's Code), and the 10 Commandments pretty much mirrors earlier law.
Just as a culture is more than the sum of its laws, Christianity is more than the Ten Commandments. If your point is that Christianity is derivative of earlier monotheistic religions, for one I think this debate has mushroomed far beyond its initial scope, but for two, I won't contest that point. However, having amalgamated the beliefs of a host of other religions into itself, Christianity then took on a life all its own and became much greater than the sum of its parts. It arose to become the defining force of Western culture.
It still is.
There were codified laws long before Christianity or Judaism, long before the Dark Ages. Much of the codified law used during the Dark Ages was Canon Law. Note, this is codified law, not common law.
Most of our law remains rooted in the Latin for that very reason.
Except for the word "law" itself, which is Anglo-Saxon.
By the way, the presumption all along has been that Christianity did not reach England until around 700 A.D.. In point of historic fact, St. Augustine was dispatched on a mission to King Ethelbert of the Saxons at the end of the 6th century.
The Saxons were vehemently non-Christian until they lost to Charlemagne, resulting in forced conversion (wow, and people think only Muslims did that). The pagan Saxons invaded England in the 400s, those left on the mainland were forceably converted in the 700s, and those in England didn't generally convert until the 800s. Their common law was in place long before they were Christian. To their credit, Christians did continue development of the common law that was already in place.
It is most certainly simplistic to assert that our entire CULTURE derives from that root.
Of course, but it's equally simplistic to state that our system of laws is based solely on Christianity, when it inherits much from non-Christian sources, as Christianity itself inherits from even earlier sources.
> It is most certainly simplistic to assert that our entire CULTURE derives from that root.
Sure would be. You just let us know when that happens.
> By the way, the presumption all along has been that Christianity did not reach England until around 700 A.D..
Not by people with any knowledge of history. Christianity got to England in the later stages of the Roman Empire. It just didn;t get much of a toehold until quite a bit later.