Canon Lawyer Research Articles

Gerald of Wales (c. 1146–1223): A Canonist Rediscovered

2023 marks the 800th anniversary of the death of Gerald of Wales. Scholarship to-date has focused on Gerald's extensive non-legal literature. His contribution to canon law has hitherto been neglected. However, Gerald was a canon lawyer of considerable stature. He was a student and teacher of canon law, he administered canon law and defended it against the encroachment of the royal law, and he litigated in canon law to the highest level – the papal court in Rome.

The Man in the Mirror: Adam USK, Self-reflection Through Vaticination

The chronicle of Adam Usk (c.1352–1430), a secular Welsh clerk, priest, and canon lawyer, is replete with vatic material. Written in uneven stages from 1401 to 1421, with lapses during difficult periods in Adam's life, the chronicle boasts an unusual and reflective first-person narration complicated by the relationship with prophecy and portents. It forms a multi-layered text: a performatively chronological personal history subject to revision and reassessment reimagined through integrating vatic material into it. This article examines Adam's work, proposing that his use of prophetic material facilitated a self-reflective work rather than one focused on narratives of legitimation.

"Our System": Father Robert T. Kennedy, the American Legal Tradition, and the Development of Administrative Law in the Revision of the Code of Canon Law

As an American civil and canon lawyer, Father Robert Kennedy offered much to the study of canon law and the revision of the Code of Canon Law. As president of the Canon Law Society of America and chairman of the Society's Ad Hoc Committee on Due Process, Kennedy advocated subsidiarity and the development of means of legal recourse through committees of arbitration and administrative courts. With the Church's formation of a Code Commission to study the revision of the code, Kennedy's work as a consultor for the De processibus subcommittee allowed him to advance the cause for subjective rights, due process, and administrative procedures. Kennedy's studies in the United States and Rome provided him with unique insights that he was able to apply concretely to the revision of the code. These insights were influenced by his personal experience of the Universal Church and the American tradition.

Droit subjectif ou droit objectif? La notion de ius en droit scaramentaire au xiie siècle by Thierry Sol

Reviewed by: Droit subjectif ou droit objectif? La notion de ius en droit scaramentaire au xiie siècle by Thierry Sol Jason Taliadoros Sol, Thierry. Droit subjectif ou droit objectif? La notion de ius en droit scaramentaire au xiie siècle. Turnhout: Brepols, 2017. Pp. 331. $104. ISBN: 978-2-503-57602-2 Thierry Sol's monograph navigates a particularly difficult subject, whose understanding depends on a precise use of language and terms. For this reviewer, who is accustomed to communicating in the English language, the task is therefore doubly difficult. The title, Droit subjectif ou droit objectif? La notion de ius en droit scaramentaire au xxie siècle, translates as 'Subjective Right or Objective Right?: The Notion of Right in Sacramental Law in the Twelfth Century'. The word droit in French, just like the Latin term it translates, 'ius', can mean either 'right' or 'law' in English. Which of these is meant here? The French terms 'droit subjectif' and 'droit objectif' translate as 'subjective right' and 'objective right' respectively, since the term 'droit' here is intended to capture the broader idea of an entitlement, something due to someone, rather than the narrower English term 'law', which more commonly connotes a normative system, usually in a positivist sense. Of course, the other reason for translating 'droit' as 'right' is that Sol clearly situates his book within the scholarly controversy that has influenced political, historical, and legal historical scholarship on the origin of the use of the concept of subjective right (droit subjectif) in the history of Western European thought: the debate between American medievalist and canon lawyer, Brian Tierney, and French legal theorist, legal historian, and Roman lawyer, Michel Villey. These two men, each of them extremely influential leaders in their respective centres of learning, came up with two very different solutions to this quandary. As to whether they were in fact answering the same question, Sol has something to say on this, of which I will add more below. From Villey's perspective, there was a Copernican-like moment in the fourteenth century in the writings of William Ockham when that author conceived of the novel concept of a subjective right when employing the Latin term [End Page 337] 'ius'; this was significant because previously that same Latin term had designated only an objective right. The distinctive quality in Ockham, for Villey, was that when referring to the term 'ius', Ockham meant also 'potestas', a power in the individual.1 In contrast, Tierney situated this same moment two centuries earlier in the writings of the twelfth-century decretists as they commentated on the swirling meanings of the term ius in the text of Gratian's Decretum. Villey's works on this topic spanned the period from the mid-1940s to the early 1980s, while Tierney's contributions began in the 1960s and have continued right up to the present day. Tierney's Liberty and Law, published in 2014, was the culmination of his 'corpus' on the idea of the subjective, or permissive, right, which I reviewed in a recent volume of this journal.2 Now Brian Tierney has joined Michel Villey as another master scholar to have passed from us.3 Thierry Sol's stated aim in writing this book is not, like Tierney or Villey, to find the historical a priori starting point for 'individual rights' but instead to pursue 'a subjective way of thinking of rights, beginning from faculties and powers that a man can use'.4 Sol's perspective is that of the theologian and the canonist as his focus is on how this subjective way of thinking manifests itself in the 'munus sanctificandi', one of the offices or duties of the ordained priest, namely that of sanctifying (including the right of celebrating the sacraments and the associated right of [End Page 338] binding and loosing, excommunicating and deposing). This office of sanctifying, Sol notes, was also a major preoccupation of canon lawyers in the twelfth century, the period to which he confines his study. So centring his study on this essential role of the priest, the central question Sol asks himself is this:5 is the right of celebrating [the sacraments] (ius...

Identity and Dialogue

The topic of our symposium focuses especially on unity and identity situating Romanian orthodoxy in a geographical perspective between East and West. The question of identity and dialogue with the Western world made me think especially of the situation of faithful living in diaspora. I think that in this sense, the Orthodox and the Catholic Church are both confronted with similar problems and challenges. Since I have been focusing my research on the situation of Catholics from the Eastern Catholic Churches living in diaspora, the so called Uniates, even if this notion seems not to appropriate anymore since the Declaration of Balamand in 1993, I could not ignore the phenomenon of migration. In what follows, I want to present the view of the Catholic Church on migrants in general before focusing more precisely on Church structures, then as a canon lawyer the institutional aspects are of particular interest for me. The characteristics of the Catholic view are, at least for some of them, the result of theological foundations. However, we will present them only briefly, not entering into details, since the limits imposed to this paper do not allow it. When we speak of missions and parishes, we use these notions in the sense of Church structures. The Catholic Church designates the local structures that are not yet parishes with the word ‘missions’. So, it differs from the sense that Orthodoxy often attributes to this word. In the Catholic view, it has a specific significance, but we also will see that a missionary perspective is not completely absent from this Catholic view. Keywords: Romanian Orthodoxy, identity, unity, Catholic Church, migration, missiology

Political Atheism and Early Modern Natural Law

This essay examines how natural law ideas of early modern Protestant and Catholic thinkers unwittingly conspired to undergird the conceptual possibility of political atheism. Political atheism refers to the idea that there could be a domain of action, the temporal, which could be effectively governed without need for recourse to spiritual instruments or authority. Pierre Bayle shocked his contemporaries in 1682 when he argued for the possibility of a well ordered society of atheists. The essay looks at the foundations of this kind of argument in the epicurean anthropology of Protestant jurisconsults, Samuel Pufendorf and Christian Thomasius, and in the concept of “indirect papal power” developed by Catholic canon lawyer Robert Bellarmine. The essay takes as its case study the papal interdict issued to Republican Venice in 1606-1607.

Book Review: Indissolubility and the Synod of Bishops: Reflections of a Canon Lawyer. By John A. Alesandro

Book Review: Indissolubility and the Synod of Bishops: Reflections of a Canon Lawyer. By John A. Alesandro

Legista sine canonibus parum valet, canonista sine legibus nihil

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...

Jehangir Yezdi Malegam, The Sleep of Behemoth: Disputing Peace and Violence in Medieval Europe, 1000–1200. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013. Pp. xiv, 335. $55. ISBN: 978-0-8014-5132-4.

Jehangir Yezdi Malegam, <i>The Sleep of Behemoth: Disputing Peace and Violence in Medieval Europe, 1000–1200</i>. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013. Pp. xiv, 335. $55. ISBN: 978-0-8014-5132-4.

A Canon Lawyer and his Practice: Master Michael de Harclay c. 1310-23

The operation and effect of legal administration cannot, in practice, be divorced from the social realities of those who operate and participate in the system. This article examines the operation of the legal practice of a canon lawyer in the north of England in the early fourteenth century. Traces from the muniments of the practice, in particular a listing of the pensions received, allow the construction of a minimal client list. Such lists are far from common and this one is used to explore the development and operation of the legal practice and also the niche within the social ecology in which Harclay worked. The resulting picture is valuable because it depicts the position of a modestly successful canon lawyer - not one of the ‘high flyers’. It shows something of the interaction of system, lawyer, and client and also, more widely, the network of connections both narrowly professional and wider which Harclay developed and used. And, thus, it offers a glimpse, more ‘in the round’, of local life operating. It illuminates a little of the actualities of the intersection of legal administration with local life.

Excelso García Gutiérrez, O.P. (1913 – 2004): His Person and His Writings

Writing on Fr. Excelso García, OP with the intent of describing his personality profile and of compiling an exhaustive list of his written works, seems by all means a bit too daring. I am well aware from the very start that what I am going to say in these pages about him will not render justice to his figure. Yet, one thing encourages me to do it, namely, the fact that keeping silent about him would not render him justice. Silence, in addition to depriving us from his inspiring life, would not relegate this illustrious Dominican, writer and professor to oblivion. This is what has motivated me to write this article on him on the occasion of the 50th birth anniversary of Philippiniana Sacra, the Journal of the Ecclesiastical Faculties of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila that he co-founded in 1966 and of which was its first Editor. Outlining my approach to Fr. Excelso’s profile, I summarily state that he was a great missionary, a good Dominican, a prestigious canon lawyer, a prolific writer, a consummated Tagalogist, an expert educator and, as the first Editor of Philippiniana Sacra.

Pastoral care of patients with Ebola Virus Disease: A medical and canonical opinion about pastoral visits to patients with contagious and highly fatal diseases.

The Ebola Virus Disease is a contagious and highly fatal illness that up until recently had been geographically limited to remote areas of Africa. In 2014, Ebola patients have been transported to the United States for care or have been newly diagnosed in the United States. With the intensive medical care and isolation policies usually needed by these patients, we inquired whether pastoral care would be possible. Using clinical and canonical considerations, we analyzed the permissibility and logistical challenges pastoral care presents to the priests and lay ministers, as well as the healthcare system. We conclude that with the approval of local, state, and federal health officials, pastoral care, including provision of the sacraments, is possible. It would require proper training, proper equipment and policies, and a significant commitment of time. While the risk to the pastoral team is difficult to define, it seems low in an Ebola-capable medical system. These risks to priests and ministers seem reasonable given the inestimable benefits of receiving the sacraments during critical illness. Lay summary: Traditional pastoral visits to hospitalized patients might prove difficult or impossible for diseases that are contagious and highly fatal. This inquiry examines the feasibility, challenges, and logistical solutions to these visits. With input from bishops, priests, a canon lawyer, an epidemiologist, a physician, the CDC, and others, we conclude that pastoral visits are possible. Visits will require permission of health authorities, commitments of time, training, and a small but significant risk to the health of priests and others who volunteer for this ministry.

Holy Scripture and the Quest for Authority at the End of the Middle Ages

Holy Scripture and the Quest for Authority at the End of the Middle Ages

«Cronache Sociali», 1947–1951. Edizione anastatica integrale (review)

Reviewed by: «Cronache Sociali», 1947–1951. Edizione anastatica integrale Massimo Faggioli «Cronache Sociali», 1947–1951. Edizione anastatica integrale. Edited by Alberto Melloni. 2 vols. (Bologna: Istituto per le scienze religiose. 2007. Pp. cii, 1104; 1105–1983, appendix v, with a DVD. €120,00. ISBN 978-8-890-11073-3.) Giuseppe Dossetti (1913–96)—member of the antifascist resistance, politician, canon lawyer, priest, peritus at Second Vatican Council, founder of a religious order, and monk—was one of the most important “public Catholics” in Italy between World War II and the end of the century. In 1945, Dossetti became vice-secretary of the Christian Democratic Party (Democrazia Cristiana), the pivotal center of the political system immediately after the war. In 1953, he founded the “Istituto per le scienze religiose” in Bologna with Giuseppe Alberigo and Paolo Prodi, and served as the closest adviser of Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro, archbishop of Bologna, from the Second Vatican Council until early 1968, when Lercaro had to resign under pressure from Rome for his criticism of the Vietnam War. More than fifteen years after his death, Dossetti still is an inspiring figure for many Italian Catholics, including those who are politically active. To understand Dossetti’s contribution to Italian Catholicism and Italian politics, it is necessary to go back to the journal he founded, Cronache Sociali. In the long introduction (pp. XIII–XLIV), the editor, Alberto Melloni (now director of the study center founded by Dossetti and based in Bologna), reconstructs the prehistory of Cronache Sociali and Dossetti’s engagement in the reconstruction of Italian politics. This history begins in 1942, when Dossetti met with colleagues from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. The introduction follows step by step the short life of the journal, from its inception in 1947 (after the ousting of the leftists from Alcide De Gasperi’s administration at the outset of the cold war) to its closing in 1951 (when Dossetti decided to withdraw from the leadership of the Christian Democratic Party as well as direct political engagement and return to historical-theological research). The editorial of the first issue of the journal, published on May 30, 1947, announced the mission of Cronache Sociali: We do not want to escape from a commitment to give social and political assessments, and indeed we make that commitment. But we do not interpret this commitment as restricted to the analysis of petty politics, but rather concerned in finding the connections between politics and the living substance of the problems of contemporary man. This research and evaluation is now, in our opinion, the true and greater politics, a human politics. (n.p., emphasis in original) During those four and a half years, Cronache Sociali tried to capture and transmit to politically minded Italian Catholics the movements and ideas coming from Europe, especially from France and Germany; this approach made Cronache Sociali a kind of Italian equivalent (although short-lived) of [End Page 603] Emmanuel Mounier’s Paris-based journal Esprit or Walter Dirks’s Frankfurt periodical Frankfurter Hefte. The sections of the journal included “national politics, ” “chronicles from Parliament, ” “international affairs, ” “economy, ” “life of political parties, ” “workers unions, ” “culture, ” and “sociology.” Contributors to Cronache Sociali included Vittorio Bachelet (a major leader of Catholic Action in Italy), philosopher Augusto Del Noce, Giorgio La Pira (mayor of Florence), patrologist Giuseppe Lazzati, Emmanuel Mounier, and David Maria Turoldo. Their articles offer a very interesting window into post–World War II Italy and especially the politically and theologically “progressive” Christian Democratic Party that was therefore critical of De Gasperi’s caution toward domestic politics and foreign policy, especially in matters pertaining to the United States. The last issue of Cronache Sociali, published on October 31, 1951, opened with an editorial that was harshly critical of De Gasperi’s political action to restore Italian political life: At this moment, given the actual functioning of the executive branch, it would be inaccurate to characterize the Italian Republic as a “parliamentary democracy” (given the special autonomy claimed by the executive before the Parliament) or as a “parliamentary popular democracy” (as it is in Great Britain). For now, we have to stop with this negative characterization . . . while we wait for a...

Moral Dilemmas in Medieval Thought from Gratian to Aquinas. By M.V.Dougherty. (Cambridge UP, 2011. Pp. x + 226. Price £55.00, $90.00.)

The topic of moral dilemmas – situations ‘in which an agent cannot fulfil all impending moral obligations’ (p. 3) – is a central issue in modern philosophical ethics. But it was subject of significant discussion in the Middle Ages, too, under the general description of moral ‘perplexity’. An agent is perplexed if she is unable to avoid acting against an obligation. Moral perplexity might come in various shapes and forms: perplexity secundum quid (‘an individual experiencing a conflict of obligations arising from the prior commission of some morally impermissible action’ (p. 115)), and perplexity simpliciter (‘an individual experiencing a conflict of obligations given no prior misdeed’ (p. 115)); and of the former of these, perplexity such that the ‘bad effects of the prior misdeed can. .. be defused’ (p. 142), and perplexity such that it cannot be. And included among ‘prior misdeeds’ are the dictates of an erroneous conscience. Perplexity in all of these forms is distinct from mere epistemic confusion – merely being unsure about how to behave. Dougherty includes in‐depth chapters on Gratian (the canon lawyer), the early thirteenth‐century theologians William of Auxerre and Alexander of Hales, Thomas Aquinas, Raymond Lull, and Capreol, and very brief discussions of the main thinkers between Aquinas and Ockham – thus extending well beyond the scope suggested in his title.

A Canon Lawyer's Compilation from Fifteenth-Century Yorkshire

The numerous surviving formulary volumes compiled by ecclesiastical administrators and lawyers in pre-Reformation England are valuable but neglected adjuncts to the period's surviving church court records. Using material in a fifteenth-century volume originally compiled by a lawyer of the courts at York, this article demonstrates the utility of such volumes to supplement and complement the surviving court books and papers. In particular it draws attention to two cases taken to the Council of Constance. These add to evidence of England's acceptance of that assembly's jurisdictional claims, and illustrate England's integration into the court structures of the broader Catholic Church.

THE MISSIONARY POSITION: CATHOLICS WRITING THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION

This article retraces the history of the composition, adaptation and proliferation of the foremost contemporary Catholic history of the English Reformation, De schismate Anglicano, in order to raise questions about the hermeneutics of ‘counterfactual history’. Originally written by Nicholas Sander in the 1570s, the work was extensively revised by the English Jesuit leader-in-exile, Robert Persons, and adapted by the Spanish Jesuit, Pedro de Ribadeneyra. Their respective interpretations of the Reformation/schism were shaped by their backgrounds and interests as canon lawyer, missionary activist and Catholic Reformation apologist, but they shared a providentialist belief that it would certainly fail. History proved them wrong even as they were writing, with the result that each version is incomplete and defective, representing a perplexing collapse of their grand narrative, what we might call the ‘missionary position’. As modern readers of these histories, seeking to recover lost perspectives, we can reclaim some residual truth from the narratives by applying Martin D'Arcy's conception of sacred history as running counter to secular history, with only intermittent manifestations of providence. This dual, or equivocal, vision of history seems particularly appropriate in the context of Reformation-era Catholic historians who used the newly-fractured relations of church and state to justify and even demand equivocation.

A New Friendship: The Spirituality and Ministry of the Deacon (review)

Reviewed by: A New Friendship: The Spirituality and Ministry of the Deacon Phyllis Zagano (bio) A New Friendship: The Spirituality and Ministry of the Deacon. By Edward L. Buelt Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2011. 189 pp. $19.95. The restoration of the diaconate as a permanent order in the Catholic Church has presented and continues to present an ongoing problem for many bishops, in large part because the spirituality and identity of the deacon is neither well developed nor well understood. Questions abound, beginning with: what is a deacon? What does a deacon do? With his new book Monsignor Edward Buelt attempts to answer some of those questions. Buelt entered priesthood for the Archdiocese of Denver in 1982, after the restored diaconate was well underway. A liturgist and canon lawyer, he is founding pastor of a large suburban Denver parish that has one additional priest and three deacons on clerical staff. A New Friendship is the result of a retreat Buelt offered to Denver deacons—there are 171 at this writing—in which he interwove themes of diaconal ministry with traditional Gospel themes of service. He defines diaconal spirituality in conversation with the Scriptures and church teaching on the diaconate, presenting practical discussion regarding the ministry of the deacon in the liturgy of the eucharist. Central to the ministry and spirituality of the deacon—and therefore to understanding of ordination—is the deacon's identification with the Word, the liturgy, and charity. The typical understanding of diaconal spirituality is that in the service of the Word, the deacon lives a life of charity (service, especially to the poor), and therefore stands at the altar both assisting the priest and representing the people of God at eucharist. Looking internally, Buelt writes "the deacon works out his salvation and most radiantly shines as the icon of Christ the Suffering Servant when he is in hands-on and arms-embracing service to sinners and the poor" (118). Buelt writes that the deacon's preaching is only credible when it reflects and represents prior and ongoing diaconal ministry of service. This thematic explication of the deacon as servant follows exegesis of several Gospel passages: the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), which Buelt traces as representative of the relationship between God the Father and deacons both sons and servants; Mark's story of the anonymous "almost apostle" (Mark 10:17-31), who is willing to follow but weighed down with posessions, used to discuss the relationship between Jesus and the deacon, who is invited to "a type of 'apostolic' relationship with him" (43); and the role of the Spirit in baptizing and annointing (Mark 1:9-11; Matt 3:13-17; Luke 3:21-22). It is the central concept of deacon as "almost apostle" that skews, perhaps, the view of diaconal spirituality and ministry here presented. That is, an underlying theme of the book is that the diaconal function is adjunct to priestly ministry. The deacon is an almost-priest, but not quite. Hence, rather than belonging to a separate order in service to the bishop, as in the ancient church, the deacon is presented as adjunct clergy to the parish priest. One can argue both sides of this equation. If the order of deacon is separate and distinct, responding to the needs of the bishop for charity in the diocese, then the order of deacon—to recover its ancient tradition completely—must serve the bishop. But the development of the parochial system over the centuries places the pastor in the position of "bishop" of his parish. So the deacon often works within [End Page 263] the parish structure, often part-time and mostly as a volunteer. On the other hand, the diaconate in the Archdiocese of Denver is distinctive in that its members are more than encouraged to give witness to and evidence of a clerical status. They are encouraged to wear clerical attire with the deacon's cross and stole pin when in the conduct of ministry, especially when visiting and consoling the ill and the bereaved and when participating in liturgy. Toward the end of the book, Buelt presents an exegesis on the story of the wedding...

NICHOLAS OF GUILDFORD AND "THE OWL AND THE NIGHTINGALE"

'Maister Nichole of Guldeforde' appears as a personality in two passages of the Middle English poem known as The Owl and the Nightingale^- In the first of these (lines 187-214), the poem's eponymous protagonists agree that this 'Maister Nicole' is well qualified to act as arbiter of the dispute between the two of them, on the grounds that 'he is wise and careful with his words' ('he is wis an war of worde', line 192). In expressing her approval of him, the Owl remarks that, although he was once a little wild ('breme', line 202) and thus fond of nightingales and Other pretty little things' ('oper wi3te gente & smale', line 204), he has now calmed down and is these days too mature and judicious ('ripe and fastrede', line 211) to be swayed in the Nightingale's favour. In the second passage (lines 1745-80), the Wren tells the other two birds precisely where Nicholas is to be found - at home in 'Porteshom' (line 1752), which is, as she explains with almost pedantic exactitude, a 'village in Dorset next to the sea where there's an estuary' (At one tune ine Dorsete, / Bi J?are see in ore flete', lines 175 3 f.).2 The Wren is clearly determined to make sure that there can be no confusion about his address, especially when (as she also points out) he only has one 'woning' (line 1761) - that is, only one 'abode', or, more specifically, only one 'living' (in the sense of a clerical benefice). In her view, it is scandalous that a man of such signal abilities should have been treated so ungenerously; and she thinks it a disgrace, in particular, to Nicholas's bishops. They ought to ensure that he is enabled to display his talents more widely by providing him with the income from multiple livings ('rente a uale stude', line 1767). Indeed, 'J?eos riche men' (line 1770) do wrong to pass over so capable an individual in making such indiscriminate use of their powers of patronage - by which she presumably means their control of advowsons (the right to make appointments to benefices). Her emphasis on the unfairness with which such livings were distributed and, more specifically, her allegation of widespread nepotism (line 1775) - to the extent that even 'litle childre' (line 1776) could receive such rents - could be taken to imply criticism of the practice of clerical pluralism (the simultaneous occupation of multiple benefices);3 but in fact the Wren seems to have nothing against pluralism per se. What she objects to, specifically, is that her friend Nicholas has never been able to profit from it himself.The birds' lively partisanship for Nicholas is perhaps most elegantly explained as a witty piece of metafictional self-advertisement - he himself being the author of the poem.4 Even if he was not actually the author, he was presumably at least well enough known to the people who made up its intended authence for the references to him to have some point. Overall, the birds supply a remarkably large amount of information about him - including not just relatively factual details like his tide, surname, and address, but also various clues to his attitudes, capacities, and expectations. From that point of view, it is perhaps surprising that Nicholas has never been conclusively identified with any historically documented individual. Several candidates have been proposed - a Nicholas who was Archdeacon of London in the middle of the twelfth century; a 'Magister Nicholaus' employed by the Bishop of Winchester; a judge called 'Nicholas filius Thuroldi'; a canon lawyer called 'Nicholas de Aquila'; a chaplain called 'Nicholaus' recorded in 1209; a Nicholas who was 'submonitor capituli de Gudeford' in 1220; and a priest called Nicholas mentioned in the 1 220S.5 None of these men is actually called 'Nicholas of Guildford'; and indeed all of these identifications make very selective use of the evidence provided. In consequence, none of them has ever achieved any general acceptance among critics of the poem; and it now seems to be tacitly agreed that the hunt for the author of The Owl and the Nightingale (if that is what Nicholas was) is never going to be anything more than a wild goose chase. …

Catholic Thought and Intellectual Property: Learning from the Ethics of Obligation

The twelfth century canon lawyer Gratian once wrote “Feed the man dying of hunger, because if you have not fed him you have killed him.” If Gratian were alive today, he might take a look at the current state of global health and say, “Succor the woman dying of disease, because if you have not helped her you have killed her.” Both of these statements express an ethical obligation: if I have food, and someone else who is hungry does not, I am obligated to share my food. Likewise, if I have medicine, and someone else who is sick does not, I am obligated to share my medicine.Unfortunately, with regard to medicines and other essential products, modern institutions of intellectual property often fail to enforce or even recognize such ethical obligations. In some ways, these institutions uphold an even harsher attitude toward intellectual property than other types of property. With food, even if the hungry person receives no bread, he is still permitted to produce his own. With medicines, medical technologies, and other types of goods that are protected by institutions of intellectual property, the law can and often does prevent the sick person from producing her own.