The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law

The Cambridge History of Medieval Canon Law
Author: Anders Winroth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 738
Release: 2022-01-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1009063952
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Canon law touched nearly every aspect of medieval society, including many issues we now think of as purely secular. It regulated marriages, oaths, usury, sorcery, heresy, university life, penance, just war, court procedure, and Christian relations with religious minorities. Canon law also regulated the clergy and the Church, one of the most important institutions in the Middle Ages. This Cambridge History offers a comprehensive survey of canon law, both chronologically and thematically. Written by an international team of scholars, it explores, in non-technical language, how it operated in the daily life of people and in the great political events of the time. The volume demonstrates that medieval canon law holds a unique position in the legal history of Europe. Indeed, the influence of medieval canon law, which was at the forefront of introducing and defining concepts such as 'equity,' 'rationality,' 'office,' and 'positive law,' has been enormous, long-lasting, and remarkably diverse.

Roman Canon Law in Reformation England

Roman Canon Law in Reformation England
Author: R. H. Helmholz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2004-06-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521526050
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In this book one of the world's foremost legal historians draws upon the evidence of the canon law, court records and the English common-law system to demonstrate the extent to which, contrary to received wisdom, Roman canon law survived in England after the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation. R. H. Helmholz provides an extensive examination of the manuscript records of the ecclesiastical courts and professional literature of the English civilians. Rebutting the views of Maitland and others, he shows how English looked to the Continent for guidance and authority in administering the system of justice they had inherited from the Middle Ages. Intellectual links between England and the Continent are shown to have survived the Reformation and the abolition of papal jurisdiction. The extent to which papal material was still used in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries will interest all readers and surprise many.

Legal Flexibility and the Mission of the Church

Legal Flexibility and the Mission of the Church
Author: Revd Dr Will Adam
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2013-06-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1409481638
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Legal scholars and authorities generally agree that the law should be obeyed and should apply equally to all those subject to it, without favour or discrimination. Yet it is possible to see that in any legal system there will be situations when strict application of the law will produce undesirable results, such as injustice or other consequences not intended by the law as framed. In such circumstances the law may be changed but there may be broad policy reasons not to do so. The allied concepts of dispensation and economy grew up in the western and eastern traditions of the Christian church as mechanisms whereby an individual or a class of people could, by authority, be excused from obligations under a particular law in particular circumstances without that law being changed. This book uncovers and explores this neglected area of church life and law. Will Adam argues that dispensing power and authority exist in various guises in the systems of different churches. Codified and understood in Roman Catholic and Orthodox canon law, this arouses suspicion in the Church of England and in English law in general. The book demonstrates that legal flexibility can be found in English law and is integral to the law of the Church, to enable the Church today better to fulfil its mission in the world.

The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity in Modern English

The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity in Modern English
Author: W. Bradford Littlejohn
Publisher:
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2019-02-21
Genre: Anglican Communion
ISBN: 9781949716917
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"That posterity may know we have not loosely through silence permitted things to pass away as in a dream..." So opens Richard Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, one of the great landmarks of Protestant theological literature, and indeed of English literature generally. Sadly, however, recent generations of church leaders and scholars have come perilously close to allowing his work to pass away as in a dream. Locked away in a rich and beautiful, but labyrinthine and archaic Elizabethan prose style, Hooker's writings are scarcely read-and for many, scarcely readable-today. This new edition of Hooker's Laws "translates" his prose into modern English for the first time, without sacrificing any of the theological depth or sparkling wit of the original. Although the Church of England and its "Puritan" critics have long since moved on from the specific controversy that gave rise to the Laws, the significance of this extraordinary work has not diminished-nor has the urgent need for the wisdom it has to offer, which is as relevant for 21st-century Christians as it was for those in the sixteenth. Addressing such timeless questions as the role of Scripture in the life of the Church, the relationship of conscience to authority, the appropriate use of reason and tradition in theology, and the meaning of Protestantism's protest against Rome, this first volume of Hooker's Laws in Modern English promises to challenge and equip a new generation of Christian readers.

The History of Courts and Procedure in Medieval Canon Law

The History of Courts and Procedure in Medieval Canon Law
Author: Wilfried Hartmann
Publisher: CUA Press
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2016-09-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0813229049
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By the end of the thirteenth century, court procedure in continental Europe in secular and ecclesiastical courts shared many characteristics. As the academic jurists of the Ius commune began to excavate the norms of procedure from Justinian's great codification of law and then to expound them in the classroom and in their writings, they shaped the structure of ecclesiastical courts and secular courts as well. These essays also illuminate striking differences in the sources that we find in different parts of Europe. In northern Europe the archives are rich but do not always provide the details we need to understand a particular case. In Italy and Southern France the documentation is more detailed than in other parts of Europe but here too the historical records do not answer every question we might pose to them. In Spain, detailed documentation is strangely lacking, if not altogether absent. Iberian conciliar canons and tracts on procedure tell us much about practice in Spanish courts. As these essays demonstrate, scholars who want to peer into the medieval courtroom, must also read letters, papal decretals, chronicles, conciliar canons, and consilia to provide a nuanced and complete picture of what happened in medieval trials. This volume will give sophisticated guidance to all readers with an interest in European law and courts.