The Use of Canon Law in Ecclesiastical Administration, 1000–1234

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The Use of Canon Law in Ecclesiastical Administration, 1000–1234 explores the integration of canon law within administration and society in the central Middle Ages. Grounded in the careers of ecclesiastical administrators, each essay serves as a case study that couples law with social, political or intellectual developments. Together, the essays seek to integrate the textual analysis necessary to understand the evolution and transmission of the legal tradition into the broader study of twelfth century ecclesiastical government and practice. The essays therefore both place law into the wider developments of the long twelfth century but also highlight points of continuity throughout the period.

Contributors are Greta Austin, Bruce C. Brasington, Kathleen G. Cushing, Stephan Dusil, Louis I. Hamilton, Mia Münster-Swendsen, William L. North, John S. Ott, and Jason Taliadoros.

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Melodie H. Eichbauer, Ph.D. (2010), Catholic University of America, is an Associate Professor of History at Florida Gulf Coast University. In addition to peer-reviewed articles, she co-edited Law as Profession and Practice in Medieval Europe: Essays in Honor of James A. Brundage (Asghate, 2011).
Danica Summerlin, Ph.D. (2012), Cambridge, is a Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Sheffield. In addition to peer-reviewed articles, her monograph The Canons of the Third Lateran Council of 1179 is forthcoming.
"Overall, this useful collection extends our reach beyond tidy boundaries separating canon law and other genres. It shows too a creative interplay between shared texts and local practice. Instead of simply blazing the way for the vulgate version of the Decretum and its commentators, these prelates, clergy and lay authorities applied their wits to a complex heritage in a lively pursuit of remedies for the problems they faced day to day". Thomas M. Izbicki, in The Medieval Review, November 2020.

"The essays in this collection might be said to be about the relationship between theory and practice. Thanks to the detailed manuscript studies of the last century, we know a great deal about the ‘theory’ of canon law – the collections and commentaries – but how did the variation in the collections of the eleventh and twelfth centuries link to practical realities? How did churchmen who were aware of the subtleties of the laws take account of such knowledge in their actions; and how, conversely, did administrative and political events affect the theoretical side? [...] As a basic rule of thumb, if one wants to know what – in popular consciousness – is most associated with the Middle Ages, it is anything which, in the last forty years, someone has called a ‘tyrannous construct’: feudalism, chivalry, the ‘medieval’ itself. The practical use of canon law might not (quite) occupy the same heights as those other categories, but these essays show that we cannot neglect it". Benedict G.E.Wiedemann, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 70 (4), October 2019.
Acknowledgements List of Contributors Abbreviations Introduction Melodie H. Eichbauer and Danica Summerlin 1 Men on the Move: Papal Judges-Delegate in the Province of Reims in the Early Twelfth Century John S. Ott 2 History, Politics and Canon Law: The Resignation of Archbishop Eskil of Lund Mia Münster-Swendsen 3 Law in Service of a Community: Property and Tithing Rights in Gratian’s Decretum and Stephen of Tournai’s Summa Melodie H. Eichbauer 4 Contrasting Approaches among Canon Lawyers on the Twelfth Century Shift from ius naturale to Rights Jason Taliadoros 5 How the Local Council of Seligenstadt in 1023 Drew Upon Books of Church Law Greta Austin 6 Hubert Walter’s Council of Westminster in 1200 and Its Use of Alexander iii’s 1179 Lateran Council Danica Summerlin 7 The Emerging Jurisprudence, the Second Lateran Council of 1139 and the Development of Canonical Impediments Stephan Dusil 8 Bonizo of Sutri, the Dicta Bonizonis and the Development of the Jurisprudence of Canon Law before Gratian William L. North 9 Law and Disputation in Eleventh- Century Libelli de lite Kathleen G. Cushing 10 ‘We Receive the Law on Mt. Sinai … When We Study the Sacred Scriptures’: Law, Liturgy and Reform in the Exegesis of Bruno of Segni Louis I. Hamilton Postface: The View from 2017 Bruce C. Brasington Bibliography Index
This volume aims to engage those whose research brings them into contact with legal sources, together with those who are already researching medieval canon law.
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