History Of Canon Law Research Articles

“Piers Plowman” and the Reinvention of Church Law in the Late Middle Ages

“Piers Plowman” and the Reinvention of Church Law in the Late Middle Ages

“Piers Plowman” and the Reinvention of Church Law in the Late Middle Ages

“Piers Plowman” and the Reinvention of Church Law in the Late Middle Ages

Theoretical dilemmas of criminal law in the aspects of canon law and secular law

Cardinal Péter Erdő has been archbishop of the main diocese Esztergom-Budapest, primate of Hungary and the highest leader of the Hungarian catholic church from 2002. Beside his high-ranking ecclesiastical role assumption in the church, he has fulfilled a high volume of work in the world of sciences, too. He is ordinary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and president of the Scientific Academy „Szent István”. He has written numerous scientific books- both in Hungarian and in several foreign languages –in his latest book titled „The Soul of Canon Law” he presents the valid catholic canon law and its historical development. His special research area is canon law, the history of canon law in the Middle Age and the history of the church. The topic of several of his works is the examination of the connection of sin and felony and their theoretical questions. He is active participant of the international scientific public life of canon law, and board member of several international scientific bodies. In the topic of canon law, he is an unavoidable authority not only in Hungary but also internationally. „He is deeply interested in law history, in the human relations of canon law, he is not only interested in the change of rules but also in their backgrounds.” „There are a few people only who can like law in a human way” – said his former teacher about him. It is not a coincidence that Cardinal Péter Erdő in addition to his ecclesiastical duties in the classical sense, has taken and continues to play a major role in the field of ecclesiastical law in both research and education. At the opening of this year’s ecumenic orison week he said in his speech: „Today we especially need to protect and help families. Even if the external environment aggravates sometimes the life of our families, the more we have to stand forthem with generous love.” (URL1). As the highest church leader of the country, he has taken every opportunity to encourage believers and non-believers alike to endure and deal with the special situation caused by the pandemic. In September 2020 the church leaders conducted a meeting – on initiative of Dr. Sándor Pintér, Minister of the Interior – about developments and experiences of the program „Catching up settlements”. Among others we asked Cardinal Péter Erdő how he considers the social role-taking of the Hungarian Catholic Church especially with regard to the pandemic, what he thinks about the connection of canon law and secular law. The interview was conducted by Zsuzsanna Hornyik.

You shall bury him: burial, suicide and the development of Catholic law and theology

Whether physician-assisted dying should be legalised is a major debate in medical ethics and much has been written on it from both secular and religious perspectives. Less, however, has been...

Nichtchristen in der Geschichte des kanonischen Rechts

The article deals with the question of how non-Christians were represented in premodern Canon law, under which aspects historical research (especially as regards the history of Canon law) has dealt with them so far and how or on under what conditions did it arrive at its conclusions. First, the current state of research as regards the history of Canon law, in general, and the status of non-Christians, in particular, are considered. Then, the focus turns to the semantics and the concept of the infidel in the legal as well as theological tradition of the Catholic Church. As a third step, the project of a bibliography on the status of non-Christians in the normative culture of the Catholic Church between Antiquity and modern times as well as some insights into the history of research gained in the course of the respective bibliographical studies will be presented. The last part of the article takes a closer look at two methodological aspects of research, namely the problem of anachronistic terms and contemporary aspects of valuation.

Wykluczenie bonum prolis w Kodeksie Prawa Kanonicznego z 1983 roku i Kodeksie Kanonów Kościołów Wschodnich

The issue of procreation and education of offspring has always been the object of special concern for the Church. It appears, among others in legal regulation of this pro­blem. The right and the duty to procreate and educate offspring was inevitably connected with general vision of marriage, it is purposes and property of matrimonial consent. Therefore, with the evolution of understanding of marriage itself in the history of canon law, the term of bonum prolis (good of the offspring) was also changed. Legal norms regarding the issue of exclusion of the good of the offspring contained in the 1983 Code of Canon Law (CIC/83) and in the 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO), which was mentioned in the introduction of this article, are identical in their bodies. Only can. 776 § 1 CCEO is a kind of complement of can. 1055 § 1 CIC/83, which speaks about structure of marriage. In turn, can. 1061 § 1 CIC/83, which is a spe­cific definition of consummated and valid marriage, has no equivalent in CCEO. The procreation and education of offspring is the natural purpose and the culmination of marriage. Marital acts should be directed towards procreation and must be performed in a natural and human fashion. Hence, the exclusion of acts of conjugal living which are open to procreation of offspring, taken with a positive act of the will results in the in­va­lidity of the marriage itself.

Raimundus Lullus on Canon Law

Abstract This article gives an overview of the use of canon law in the Art of Raimundus Lullus, explaining the relevance of canon law for his plan to reform the Church, and Lullus’ progressive comprehension and adoption of the culture of ius commune. Some examples extracted from his works are reviewed and commented in order to understand the place of Lullus in the history of canon law.

„Selbstbericht“ Ulrich Stutz

Abstract „Selfdescription“ Ulrich Stutz. Ulrich Stutz closed his „selfdiscription“ in May 1934 and handed it to the library of the University of Basel with the remark „strictly confidential during the lifetime of the author“. It has been quoted very rarely and is published here for the first time. Ulrich Stutz is not only the founder of the history of canon law, but he was also for a long time its spiritus rector. The „selfdiscription“ is preceded by brief remarks on the life and work of this great scholar.

Miszellen. Raimundus Lullus on Canon Law

AbstractThis article gives an overview of the use of canon law in the Art of Raimundus Lullus, explaining the relevance of canon law for his plan to reform the Church, and Lullus’ progressive comprehension and adoption of the culture of ius commune. Some examples extracted from his works are reviewed and commented in order to understand the place of Lullus in the history of canon law.

„Selbstbericht“ Ulrich Stutz

Abstract„Selfdescription“ Ulrich Stutz. Ulrich Stutz closed his „selfdiscription“ in May 1934 and handed it to the library of the University of Basel with the remark „strictly confidential during the lifetime of the author“. It has been quoted very rarely and is published here for the first time. Ulrich Stutz is not only the founder of the history of canon law, but he was also for a long time its spiritus rector. The „selfdiscription“ is preceded by brief remarks on the life and work of this great scholar.

The formation of Gratian’s Decretum as an example of the vitality of Roman law

The formation of Gratian’s Decretum as an example of the vitality of Roman law Gratian’s Decretum was one of the most significant legal collections in the history of canon law and was the foundation of canon law science. It was compiled in about 1140 as the consequence of many important factors. Firstly, the creation of Gratian’s Decretum was the result of various trends appearing in the history of canon law. Secondly, Decretum was an answer to the changes taking place in the Catholic Church in the 11th and 12th centuries. Finally, the formation of Gratian’s collection was related to the revival of Roman law: the teaching of Irnerius’s work recovered Roman law and the relations between canon and Roman law. Decretum became a sign of the vitality of Roman law and the beginning of canon law. The importance of Gratian’s work consisted in the method of proceeding with legal sources. The new method resulted from both scholars’ achievements and those of medieval Roman jurists.

Antonio García y García, O.F.M. (1928–2013)

Antonio Garcia y Garcia, O.F.M, died on July 8, 2013, after a decade of suffering from an agonizing form of Alzheimer's disease, in the Franciscan convent of Chipiona (Cadiz). Born in Bretona (Lugo, Galicia) on January 7, 1928, he joined the Order of St. Francis at the age of eighteen and was ordained a priest in 1952. He received his doctorate in canon law at the Pontificium Athenaeum Antonianum in Rome in 1956 and was appointed professor for History of Canon Law at the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca in 1959, where he taught until his retirement.With the death of Professor Garcia, the profession has lost one of the last founding fathers of modern scholarship in medieval canon law. He belonged to the group of canonists led by Stephan Kuttner. These canonists were associated by friendship and pointed the way to a manuscript-based research of canon law. They were at the same time great scholars and true gentlemen. He was an amazingly prolific writer, with a scholarly output that surprises in quantity as well as in its wide range of content and interest. His oeuvre includes thirty-two books and almost 300 articles (see his bibliography published in Studia Gratiana 28,1998). The topics of his publications, which appeared in a large variety of Spanish, Portuguese, and international journals, stretch geographically from his own little hometown in Spain to Latin America and chronologically from the sixth to the seventeenth centuries. He critically investigated texts from the canons of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) to the Tractatus de legibus of Francisco Suarez (1612); he analyzed problems of legal history from the fidelity oaths in Visigothic councils to the human rights of the indigenous people of Latin America; and he discussed the history of the European universities as well as that of the colonial conquests by Spain and Portugal. Among the innumerable findings of his research, two farsighted endeavors stand out, assuring that the international community of historians will remember Father Garcia forever with respect and gratitude. First is the monumental Synodicon Hispanum, which he conceived, directed, and partly compiled. Progressing at a steady pace since 1981, it has produced eleven volumes to date and covered a large number of Spanish and Portuguese dioceses in a systematic fashion, thus placing the two Iberian countries in a leading position within the international scholarship in synodal texts. The second invaluable accomplishment of Father Garcia results from his tireless and most successful efforts to highlight the treasures of medieval manuscripts in Spain. Fifty years ago, the manuscript holdings of that country were regarded, even by native scholars, as a kind of wonderland-immensely rich, but mysterious and practically inaccessible. If this situation has definitely changed by now, at least as far as medieval legal manuscripts are concerned, this is almost entirely due to Father Garcia, who acted as a very efficient access manager to Spanish libraries, operating on two different fronts. …

L’appartenance à une Église de droit propre dans l’Église catholique. D’un principe juridique établi à une réalité malmenée

Within the Catholic Church, the criteria for belonging to a sui iuris Church have evolved throughout the history of Canon Law, particularly after the fairly recent promulgation of the Latin Code in 1983 and of the Code of the Canons of the Eastern Churches in 1990. Positive Law is proof of the care the legislator now takes to give priority to the objectivity of the criteria, whilst not preventing other elements to be taken into account, such as the desire of people who wish to change the rite, for example in the case of their marriage. Holy See law and Praxis are a witness to this difficult search for a balance between an objective determinism concerning adherence to the ritual and a subjective freedom to choose one’s rite or to modify it. However, society and Church structures have changed in recent years, changes which are characterized by the multiplication of ecclesiastical structures with a personal character in the Latin world, giving the Faithful the right to have their own personal wishes; and a growing number of Eastern Church members in Diaspora. This has led us to reconsider whether it is now at all pertinent to favour territorial criteria as opposed to personal ones in Eastern Church structures. Unless we wish to condemn them to a marginal position or even to disappear altogether, we must now reflect carefully on the institutional link between the Sui Iuris Churches and their Faithful. The weight of History, of the link with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches, and of the tradition of Canon Law must be simultaneously integrated and transcended if Eastern Catholic Churches are not to be trapped within a death-inducing logic.

Kanonistik im Zeitalter von Absolutismus und Aufklärung: Spielräume und Potentiale einer Disziplin im Spannungsfeld von Kirche, Staat und Publizität (Canon Law in the Age of Absolutism and Enlightenment: Scope and Potential of a Discipline between Church, State and Publicity)

This article is devoted to the impact public opinion had on the development of canon law in the 18th century when the Catholic Church was judged increasingly critically and started to shift away from the centre of publicity. In view of the growing influcence public opinion exerted on the Church the question arises whether or not the science of canon law was still able to fulfill its traditional function of defining the universal Church juridically and to expound its law. As regards the second half of the 18th century, historiography traditionally presents a picture of canon law that is characterized by institutional crisis, academic decline and growing dissent (e.g. Juridisctionalism and Febronianism). This article aims at a critical ascertaining the extent of this view.After a general introduction as well as an overview of the history of canon law and its science in the 18th century the article first deals with the controversy regarding the Bull ‘In Coena Domini’ (1768-1770) which highlights the contemporary debate about Church and state. After a brief outline of the conflict some copper engravings from writings on ‚In Coena Domini‘ and canon law are analyzed with regard to their underlying concepts. Looking at the symbol of light the divergent philosophical and theological views about public opinion become apparent. Finally three examples are taken which show both the different forms of state influence on the development of canon law and the reactions of curialist authors. The respective examples are: the transformation of the science of canon law into a science of Austrian Church law in the age of Maria Theresia (1740-1780), the debate on the promulgatio in acie Campi Florae and the academic study of the so-called public ecclesiastical law (ius publicum ecclesiasticum). As a result of this inquiry a particular sustainability of canon law jurisprudence at the threshold of the modern era becomes apparent.

Manuel De Droit Canonique (review)

Reviewed by: Manuel De Droit Canonique Anne Asselin, Dean Manuel De Droit Canonique by Dominique Le Tourneau. Montréal: Wilson et Lafleur, Collection Gratianus, 2010. To the seven chapters commenting on the books of the Code of Canon Law, the author has added a first chapter outlining a brief history of canon law and a closing chapter on public ecclesiastical law and civil ecclesiastical law. The introduction lays out the general principles of law and justice, of natural law, of human rights, and finally of canon law. In each chapter, the author provides a useful bibliography, although limited to French books and articles. Paragraphs are numbered, allowing for easy internal references. The book is written in a clear and non-pretentious style, with occasional humorous interjections, making it a work that is accessible to non-canonists as well as canonists looking for a general overview of the Code. The use of [End Page 300] titles and sub-titles draws the reader's attention to the core of the canon or canons of a particular section. References to the Eastern Code are meticulously added whenever required. In fact, the author has added sections, which, although pertaining to the Eastern Churches, are judged essential to a proper canonical understanding and overview of the law. For example, while commenting on Book II of the Latin Code, he adds an entire section on patriarchal churches, the powers, rights and obligations of the patriarch, and major archiepiscopal churches. What is especially helpful is the author's generous use of examples to comment on a particular canon: for example, to explain a contra legem custom, references to canons explicitly mentioning reprobation of a custom are listed, both in the Latin and the Eastern Codes. The handbook goes beyond the mere commentary of a particular canon, often adding theological underpinnings or more recent papal pronouncements expounding legislative texts. When necessary, references to particular law are added, for example, when referring to the age for receiving the sacrament of confirmation or conditions under which general absolution may be allowed. The commentary on Book II, the People of God, is the most voluminous, providing a more detailed instruction on the rights and obligations of the faithful pertaining to the conditio communionis, the conditio libertatis, the conditio activa, and the conditio subiectionis. The commentaries on Books V and VI are perhaps the shortest, but they do still contain the basic information and solid footing required by anyone seeking to make heads or tails of these oft confused or misused sections of the Code. Further readings would be required, however, of anyone having to apply the canons to particular cases. This book fills a definite void. There is a sad paucity of French canonical works. The Manuel de droit canonique will be a useful tool for students as a good overview of the canons of the Code, for canonists requiring a brief refresher on one section or another, and for non-canonists wishing to acquire a basic but solid knowledge of canon law. [End Page 301] Anne Asselin, Dean Faculty of Canon Law Saint Paul University Copyright © 2012 The Catholic University of America Press

Legat książkowy archidiakona Mikołaja Kickiego dla katedry gnieźnieńskiej. Przyczynek do kultury intelektualnej duchowieństwa wielkopolskiego w pierwszej połowie XV wieku

The article presents the book bequest of the archdeacon of Gniezno Mikołaj Kicki (died in 1429) for the chapter library in Gniezno, registered in the chapter book under the date 30 April 1435. Emphasis is placed on the uniqueness of this bequest in the 1st half of the 15th century - due to the number of the given legal codes, careful selection of titles and the artistic value of each volume. A brief biography of the owner of the collection is presented: he was the doctor of canon law (Padua 1419), vicar-general of the bishop of Poznań Andrzej Łaskarzyc (1422-1426), the administrator of the diocese of Poznań (1426-1428) and one of the most eminent prelates of the Gniezno chapter. It examines also his relationship with the above mentioned bishop, and his impact on his friend: dean of the Gniezno chapter Jasiek of Czechel, who formed his collection of books on the model of Mikołaj. The contents of the bequest are discussed, emphasizing the importance of each title in the history of canon law. Mikołaj Kicki bequeathed 27 volumes of Bologna and Paris canon law professors: 16 volumes to the chapter library, 11 (and 4 works of liberal arts) - to his nephew Jakub Kicki. The article also presents Mikołaj's recommendations on the books, formulated in the first person and showing his concern for the collection and his awareness of its scientific and artistic value. At the end it lists eight codes still preserved in the cathedral library in Gniezno.

Canon Law Resources on the Internet

ABSTRACT An article on canon law resources on the World Wide Web is sorely needed. Using Copernic Pro software, several search engines were consulted and the results correlated. The kinds of websites selected for this article include general websites on canon law, limited area search engines useful to the canonical researcher, official church organizations, laws of the Christian churches, schools, institutions, societies, encyclopedias, the history of canon law, professional assistance in canon law, foreign language sites, and subjects in canon law (e.g., marriage, abortion, and women's ordination). The information available varies widely, and includes church documents, review articles, bibliographies, discussion lists, databases, and commercial sites.

Library of Congress Religious Law Classification Schedules: Elegant, Flexible and User-Friendly

The Library of Congress recently issued new classification schedules for the law of the Roman Catholic Church and for the History of Canon Law. The schedules were developed by Dr. Jolande E. Goldberg of the Library of Congress with input from librarians and scholars from many countries. During the final months of their development, we spoke, individually and together, to several groups of librarians to introduce them to the elegant structure of these forthcoming schedules and to get reaction from librarians who had, and had not been, involved earlier in the development process. My role was to provide some context to the content of the schedules. I discussed the concept of religious law for purposes of these schedules and introduced the historical development of religious law, particularly that of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Papacy and Canon Law in the Eleventh-Century Reform

In the eleventh and early twelfth century the age-old Christian concepts of individual renewal, renovation, restoration, and reformation took on a new and wider meaning. The ideal of individual Christian renewal was linked with the notion of the renewal of society a whole, that is to say of the Church a whole.1 This renewal, a remarkable unfolding of intellectual sophistication, coincided not only chronologically with what is justly called the Twelfth-Century Renaissance; it was part and parcel of the same developments.2 They were accompanied by a new emphasis on ancient well familiar collections of canon law and the rediscovery of law.' My topic forms one aspect of this renaissance. Paul Fournier's famous papers on canonical collections at the time of Gregory VII and on the pontificate of Urban II a turning point in the history of canon law have provided an invaluable basis for much subsequent work, but they presupposed the Gregorian reform a fait accompli, ascribing Gregorian collections to reformers in the circle of the contemporary pontiff, Gregory VII (1073-1085).4 I would like to look at canonistic materials, the reform, and the papacy from a different perspective. These remarks will explore canon law origin, inspiration, and source for the renewal and reform of the Church in the eleventh century, particularly with regard to reform of and by the papacy. Scholarship of the last decade or two has thoroughly revised the old assessment dating back at least to the Magdeburg Centuries that the eleventh-century reform was based on a rediscovery of the PseudoIsidorian forgeries,Nicht Pseudo-Isidor, sondern die Kirche wurde neu entdeckt! Horst Fuhrmann convincingly concluded his magisterial analysis of the fate of the False Decretals in Rome since the 870's. This fabrication, very likely compiled around 850 near or at Reims to defend episcopal rights, was available at the papal court and even cited haphazardly in papal letters for almost two hundred years before Pope Leo IX and his collaborators in December, 1053, used excerpts from the Decretals in support of their conviction of the pre-eminent place of the See in correspondence with Africa (JL 4304, 4305) and Constantinople (esp. JL 4302).5 It has been said that in these letters there appears a conception of the primacy differing significantly from that of the pre-reform period with an emphasis on a second, alternative Roman tradition elaborated, for example, by Pope Leo I and Pope Gregory I. This second view, for centuries only a shadowy presence if that, sees Peter princeps apostolorum and Rome as head of all the churches. The concept was emphatically represented by the Constitutum Constantini.6 The Donation of Constantine used by the papacy in the letter of 1053 to Michael Kerullarios, patriarch of Constantinople, was ultimately derived from the version transmitted by the PseudoIsidorian Decretals.7 It may be said, therefore, that beginning in the 1050's papal letters increasingly paid attention to and used the PseudoIsidorian Decretals, not, however, that they were suddenly discovered in a forgotten, dusty corner of the papal archives. Pseudo-Isidore, therefore, does play a role in eleventh-century developments, constituting a ready reservoir of ringing statements about the nature of papal authority. They were modified and adapted without hesitation when they were at odds with eleventh-century views, but were invaluable nevertheless in providing legal support for both old and new themes. A comparison of Pseudo-Isidorian materials, both authentic and false, found in the Decretum of Burchard of Worms around 1022 with those found in Gratian's Decretum of 11408 revealed a stark numerical contrast: 141 excerpts in Burchard versus 400 in the case of Gratian, very largely a resuit of the activities of collectors between c. 1080 and 1100.9 Old texts read from a new perspective could and did wreak havoc when they were used to take the measure of conventional ideas and customary practices. …

Medieval Canon Law by James A. Brundage

book reviews755 hat to Celticists. But most readers wiU find it and the other essays to be a good introduction to a Christianizing culture. Lisa M. Bitel University ofKansas Medieval Medieval Canon Law. By James A. Brundage. [The MedievalWorld.] (NewYork: Longman. 1995. Pp. xii, 260. $12.99 paperback.) In the course of the last fifty years American historians of the Middle Ages have come to realize the remarkable role canon law played in the development ofWestern Europe. Canon Law "formed a crucial component of medieval life and thought. Its rules affected the Uves and actions of practicaUy everyone, its enforcement mechanisms were increasingly able to reach into everyday affairs at aU social levels, from peasant villages to royal households, and the ideas debated in the canon law schools constituted an influential and pervasive element in medieval intellectual life."The records of church courts and the archives of ecclesiastical administrators "make up a very large fraction of the evidence that survives from the Middle Ages" (p. ix). Up until the appearance of this volume, however, novices had at hand no really appropriate survey of the discipline in English, beyond articles in encyclopedias and the Dictionary ofthe Middle Ages. There was only the history ofthe sources in Amleto Cicognani's Canon Law, but that was outdated (1935), and the one hundred pages devoted to the classical period served mainly as a reference source.The 1951 lectures of Bishop R. C. Mortimer of Exeter at the Berkeley campus ofThe University of California, later published as Western Canon Law, though exceptionally well worth reading even today, necessarily lacked the desirable depth. ConstantVan deWeil's History ofCanon Law (1991), No. 5 of the University of Louvain's "Theological and Pastoral Monographs," was too brief; it made no attempt to deal with significant issues and was not helpfully organized . Brundage, on the other hand, has managed to give an in-depth treatment of a very complex subject while avoiding the temptation of the expert to include less significant authors and developments. Especially valuable, even to one knowledgeable in the field, are the up-to-date bibliographical references in the notes.The two appendices, the Romano-canonical citation system and the biographical notes on the major canonists of the classical period, will also prove useful to professional historians. The first three chapters survey chronologicaUy the development of law from its beginnings in the early Christian Church, through the early Middle Ages, and cUfnaxing in the classical period from Gratian (1 140) to the Black Death (1348). The symbiotic relationship between the two learned laws, canon law and 756book reviews Roman law, "(so caUed in contrast to customary law and municipal statutory law, which were not typicaUy subjects of formal study in university law faculties )" and the meaning of the ¿us commune are particularly well analyzed. The next chapter demonstrates the extent to which canon law affected the private life of individuals. "Church courts exercised jurisdiction, for example, over marriage and the termination of marriage, the legitimacy of children, aU types of sexual conduct, commercial and financial behaviour, the legitimate times and conditions of labour, poor rehef, wills and testaments and burial of the dead" (p. 71).The chapter on public life explains how"out ofthe elaboration of canonical corporation theory, emerged some novel poUtical ideas that have subsequently become basic to modern Western notions about constitutional government" (p. 104).Two chapters deal with church courts and procedure and with canonical jurisprudence. A final chapter explores the widespread ramifications of canon law in Western societies. In conclusion, "the speculations and insights of medieval canonists remain enshrined both within the common law tradition of the EngUsh-speaking world and within the civil law heritage of Continental Europeans. This is most obviously true in famUy law and testamentary law, but canonical tradition is also evident in many other branches of the law—contracts, torts, property law, and corporation law among them. . . . Medieval canon law, in short, constituted a fundamental formative force in the creation of some of the elemental ideas and institutions that continue to this day to characterizeWestern societies" (p. 189). Brundage, a past president of the American Catholic Historical Association and the author of numerous books and articles...