It would be too simplistic to consider the learned laws taught at universities in the Middle Ages exclusively as systems of law, or a science of law, as we understand them today. At the time, Roman law and canon law were primarily concerned with a technique of governance: governance of a multinational company in the case of the Church, public governance for both the Church and secular authorities. The method of medieval scholarly law (which largely ignored compartmentalization by subject) can be explained in part by the need to adapt legal texts to a technique of "good governance".
The medieval method developed in a political context where supreme power was more theoretical than effective political actors. In modern times, with the advent of an exclusive and effective sovereign power, what medieval doctrine had recognized as an "extraordinary" (or "absolute") exercise of power was likely to lend itself to a quasi-ordinary exercise of power, insofar as the balance of power had been reversed. When this happened, medieval publicist theory became obsolete, and legal science reframed itself around the categories of private law.
