Legista sine canonibus parum valet, canonista sine legibus nihil

Abstract

Legista sine canonibus parum valet, canonista sine legibus nihil Kenneth Pennington Legista sine canonibus parum valet, canonista sine legibus nihil.1 Students of canon law learn that maxim early on in their studies. No modern scholar has ever doubted that Roman law was crucial for the development and understanding of medieval canon law. At the dawn of jurisprudence in the twelfth century, however, the Church's attitude towards Roman law in particular and secular law in general was not always positive. Pope Innocent II thought the study of law was inappropriate for the religious clergy, monks, and canons regular, and he promulgated Prava autem consuetudo at the Second Lateran Council in 1123 in which he forbade the religious to study law.2 Saint Bernard of Clairvaux famously complained to Pope Eugenius III about the pernicious effect of law on the papal curia.3 Nevertheless, the papal curia understood the importance of Roman jurisprudence for canon law. Pope Lucius III (1181-1185) recognized the close relationship of the two laws at the end of the twelfth century and quoted a famous text of [End Page 249] Justinian to underscore the point in two decretals.4 Although there has been debate about his intentions, when Pope Honorius III forbade the teaching of Roman law at the University of Paris in 1219 with his decretal Super specula, the canonists and the law schools had already integrated Roman law completely into their work and into the law schools' curriculum. It was an indispensable tool for the study of canon law.5 By the end of the twelfth century, an inscription on the tomb of Bassianus (†1197) in San Pietro, Bologna praised him for his learning in both laws.6 The anti-Roman law attitude found in Super specula was never completely erased until the early modern period. Since [End Page 250] Honorius III's Super specula had been incorporated into the body of canon law, its ramifications continued to raise questions about the teaching of Roman law in the canon law curriculum.7 Pope Leo X settled the issue permanently in Rome when he integrated Roman law into the curriculum of the papal law school in Rome, Sapienza, in 1515. He commanded that all students of canon law, no matter what their status, should be instructed in Roman law at the papal university.8 Leo's bulla was a privilege for Rome but not for other universities. Consequently, the issue was not conclusively settled everywhere. Its example, however, was powerful. Seventeenth-century jurists embraced Roman law completely. Prospero Fagnani (†1678) captured his fellow jurists' understanding of the relationship of the two laws in his commentary on Pope Honorius III's decretal Super specula:9 [End Page 251] The most just laws and the sacred canons have sprung forth from one womb or source. Consequently, the laws are supported by the canons, and the ambiguities of the canons are resolved by the law, just as the glosses of both laws richly reveal and as Ludovico Pontano stated in his Singularia 654 'A civil lawyer without a knowledge of canon law is worth little, a canon lawyer without a knowledge of Roman law is worth nothing'. Early modern jurists had many opinions about the maxim that Prospero cited and its meaning.10 In his introduction to his commentary on the Decretals of Gregory IX Hendrik Zoesius (†1627) argued that Justinian recognized the importance of canon law in his legislation after his codification of Roman law, when he acknowledged that civil law did not scorn to follow ecclesiastical norms.11 He also pointed out that Baldus de Ubaldis (†1400) concluded that the authority of canon law supported the majesty of Roman law.12 Early modern jurists were fond of 'quoting' Cicero to make their point about the relationship of the two laws. Zoesius summed up Cicero with the pithy sentence:13 nudos eos ad rempublicam venire, dicat, qui tantum habet legalem scientiam non conjunctam ei pontificiam. Cicero's original comment was much more ornate and complex:14 Nunc contra plerique ad honores adipiscendos et ad rem publicam gerendam nudi veniunt atque inermes, nulla cognitione rerum, nulla [End Page 252] scientia ornati … aut iuris scientiam, ne eius quidem...