Patrick of Ireland (called by some St. Patrick) lived in Ireland in the first half of the 400’s. He was once a teenage slave there, escaped, was converted to Christ, then went back to Ireland with a call from God to share Christ with the Irish. Ireland was not a unified country then, but was ruled by local chieftains. Patrick began to lead these chieftains to Christ. They then wanted to know how to rule their clans according to the Bible. It was in 432 that Patrick lifted out of the Books of Moses in the Bible the civil laws, forming what he would call, in Latin, Liber Ex Lege Moisi; or The Book of The Law of Moses. The local chieftains who had been converted to Christ began to implement these laws in their clans. The Biblical idea of decentralized government took root in Ireland and would later spread to Scotland through the work of a man named Columba. This would become the basis of British Common Law. Continue reading
