Professor Thomas was a valued colleague and friend many years ago, and it is a privilege to be asked to deliver this year's lecture in his memory. In selecting a topic for this purpose, I thought I should try to introduce a Roman note, though in order to do so I am obliged to use the term Roman law in its widest sense as including not only the Civil law but also the canon law: and the latter will turn out to have more relevance to my theme than the jurisprudence of ancient Rome or even of the glossators. The part played by both – or all three – kinds of Roman law in the development of the common law is a topic which has been very thoroughly aired and developed over the last thirty years, and I do not believe there is very much remaining to be said. But there is one stone still unturned. No one has really investigated the extent, if any, to which Roman law played a part in the educational system of the inns of court and chancery. The common-law mind was formed by that system, and the inns were therefore – according to tradition – the most effective barrier against possible Roman infiltration. But how much do we actually know about the absence or otherwise of Roman law from the curriculum? Just about enough, I will suggest, to justify one lecture.