According to Henry Maine, the stages of development of law are: A. Knowledge of law in the hands of the…

In Ancient Law (1861) Sir Henry Maine traced the development of law through successive stages: law as the divinely inspired judgments (Themistes) of the ruler, then customary law, then knowledge of the law held by a priestly or aristocratic class, then codification, at which static societies stop; progressive societies then develop law further through legal fiction, equity and legislation. Hence the order is "E-D-A-B-C".