The arrangement of topics in the _Petrus_ hardly evinces any clear design. The substance, however, is well presented. If there be a question to be solved, it is plainly stated, and the solution arrived at may be interesting. For example, a case seems to have arisen where the son of one who died intestate had seized the whole property to the exclusion of the children of two deceased daughters. The sons of one daughter acquiesced. The sons of the other _per placitum et guerram_ forced their uncle to give up their share. Thereupon the supine cousins demanded to share in what had so been won. The former contestants resisted on the plea that the latter had borne no aid in the contest and that they had obtained only their own portion. The decision was that the supine cousins might claim their heritage from whoever held it, and should receive their share in what the successful contestants had won; but that the latter could by counter-actions compel them to pay their share of the necessary expenses of the prior contest.[381] Sometimes the _Petrus_ seems to draw a general rule of law from the apparent instances of its application in Justinian’s Codification. Therein certain formalities were prescribed in making a testament, in adopting a son, or emancipating a slave. The _Petrus_ draws from them the general principle that where the law prescribes formalities, the transaction is not valid if they are omitted.[382] In fine, unsystematized as is the arrangement of topics, the work presents an advance in legal intelligence over mediaeval law-writings earlier than the middle of the eleventh century. If the _Petrus_ was adapted for use in practice, the _Brachylogus_, on the other hand, was plainly a book of elementary instruction, formed on the model of Justinian’s _Institutes_. But it made use of his entire codification, the _Novels_, however, only as condensed in Julian’s _Epitome_. The influence of the _Breviarium_ is also noticeable; which might lead one to think that the treatise was written in Orleans or the neighbourhood, since the _Breviarium_ was not in use in Italy, while the Codification of Justinian was known in France by the end of the eleventh century. The beginning of the twelfth is the date usually given to the _Brachylogus_. It does not belong to the Bologna school of glossators, but rather immediately precedes them, wherever it was composed.[383]