Discipline of The Clergy: Medieval and Modern

2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (30) ◽  
pp. 189-198
Author(s):  
R. H. Helmholz
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
General Problem ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Popular Press ◽  
Court Records ◽  
Good Fortune ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Medieval Canon Law

Discipline of the clergy is a subject of perennial interest—both in the popular press whenever something sensational takes place, and among the clergy and thoughtful lawyers when they are confronted either with the general problem of how best to fashion the church's law or the more immediate problem of how to deal with offenders against the church's law. The subject also has a long history. The purpose of this article is to bring to light a chapter from the century or so before the Reformation. Evidence taken from the medieval canon law and from the court records of the later Middle Ages may be of interest—and perhaps even relevance—to members of the Ecclesiastical Law Society. It has been my pleasure and good fortune to discover that many of them are not immune to the claims of history.

scholarly journals Saints, Martyrs, and the Reformation: Reflections on Robert Bartlett's Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?

2016 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
pp. 803-809
Author(s):  
Euan Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Cult Of Saints ◽  
Religious Aspects ◽  
The Middle Ages

Robert Bartlett's book on the cult of saints in the Middle Ages clearly constitutes a major achievement. Its scope is vast; its approach ranges from the chronological to the thematic; it embraces many cultural, as well as theological and religious, aspects of the subject. Finally, it is informed by a rich comparative vision that includes wide-ranging discussion of other religions.

Historian or Prophet? John Bale’s Perception of the Past

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 156-167
Author(s):  
Susan Royal
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
First Generation ◽  
John Bale ◽  
Hildegard Of Bingen ◽  
Protestant Church ◽  
World Picture ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One

The late medieval prophetic tradition played a significant role in how John Bale (1495–1563), England’s first Protestant church historian, formulated his ideas about the nature of revelation, which would become a contentious issue in the course of the Reformation. It is the goal of this essay to examine this first-generation evangelical’s views, which will bring us closer to understanding prophecy and its legitimacy in Reformation-era Europe. In an influential essay, Richard Southern illustrates the important role of the prophetical tradition in premodern historical writing: ‘Prophecy filled the world-picture, past, present, and future; and it was the chief inspiration of all historical thinking.’ But while its significance is easy to pinpoint, the varied nature of prophetic revelation does not make for easy delineations or definitions. Southern names four types of prophecy in the Middle Ages: biblical (Daniel, Revelation); pagan (sibylline); Christian (such as that of Hildegard of Bingen); and astrological (stars and celestial events). Of course, even these are not clearly distinct categories; Southern notes that Merlin is ‘half-Christian, half-pagan’. Lesley Coote points out that the ‘subject of political prophecy is king, people and nation’, separating this from theological, apocalyptic prophecy, though she also asserts that the two are closely related. Bernard McGinn remarks that in the later Middle Ages, prophecy is ‘seen as a divinatory or occasionally reformative activity – the prophet as the man who foretells the future, or the one who seeks to correct a present situation in the light of an ideal past or glorious future’.

scholarly journals The 110th birth anniversary of Professor Leszek Winowski (1910–1979), expert in Canon Law, historian of state and law

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-133
Author(s):  
Włodzimierz Kaczorowski
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Full Professor ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
Catholic University ◽  
History Of ◽  
Church Law ◽  
The Baltic

Prof. Leszek Józef Egidiusz Winowski was born on 23 January 1910 in Skałat, Tarnopol Voivodeship, in the Eastern Lands of the Second Polish Republic. He studied in the Faculty of Law of Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov, where he earned the Master’s degree (1932), Doctor’s degree (1935), and in 1936 began his scientific work in the Chair of Church Law; from 1942 he was working in conspiracy in Lvov and cooperated with theBaltic Institute in Sopot; in Olsztyn he organized a branch of the Baltic Institute, which was operating in the Masurian District. In 1945, Leszek Winowski was employed in the Department of Law and Administration of Wrocław University and in 1974 he was granted the title of Full Professor. At the same time he worked in the Catholic University of Lublin, where he held the post of Dean of the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences in the years 1945-1946 and – following its liquidation – he worked in the Faculty of the Canon Law where he lectured in Roman law and ecclesiastical law. In 1957, L. Winowski resigned from his work in the Catholic University of Lublin. Between 1957 and 1968, he was employed in the Teacher’s Training College in Opole, still working for Wrocław University. As regards the fields of scientific studies developed by Prof. Leszek Winowski, one candistinguish three main directions dealing with the legal situation of dissenters from the earliest Middle Ages, the state and law of Islam, and lastly – history of the Church in Silesia. Prof. Leszek Winowski was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. He was a member of many scientific societies. He died in Wrocław on 16 November 1979.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Legal Anthropology ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Byzantine Church

The introductory chapter poses the central question of the book: why did the Greeks of medieval southern Italy continue to produce and read collections of Byzantine canon law even after they had ceased to be a part of the Byzantine church and had instead become subjects of the Roman papacy? The Norman conquest of the region took place in the 1040s–1070s, yet the Italo-Greeks were still copying Byzantine canon law manuscripts as late as the fourteenth century. What does this say about the nature of law and religion in southern Italy in the Middle Ages? The chapter then contextualises the book by discussing its place against the background of Byzantine legal scholarship, highlighting the potential of legal anthropology and the concept of legal pluralism to contribute to the field. It then moves on to discuss the significance of law for the study of religion and culture and sets out the rationale behind the way in which the book approaches the subject. Following this, the chapter introduces the thirty-six manuscripts that serve as the book’s primary sources, explaining how the approach of material philology informed its methodology. Finally, it provides an overview of the content and arguments of the rest of the book’s chapters.

‘Tempering the Wind …’: Moderation and Discretion in Late Twelfth-Century Papal Decretals

2007 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 180-190
Author(s):  
Anne J. Duggan
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Analytical Method ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Law School ◽  
The People ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Medieval Canon Law

Medieval canon law has generally had a bad press. Its professionalization in the period c. 1140 to 1234 can easily be caricatured as the emergence of a rigid, centralized, and authoritarian system which paid small heed to the needs of the people it was supposed to serve. This conclusion is readily sustained by perusal of theLiber Extra, the GregorianDecretalesof 1234, which enshrined the legal developments of the period, from about 1140, which followed the establishment of Gratian’sDecretumas the principal authority for the teaching and practice of canon law. The genesis of theLiber Extrais well known. Pope Gregory IX commissioned Raymond of Peñafort to compile an authoritative collection of papal decretals and conciliar legislation to supplement Gratian’sDecretum, and it drew, principally but not exclusively, on the so-calledQuinqe compilationes antiquewhich had been compiled for teaching purposes in Bologna between c. 1189–91 and 1226.’ And when the work was completed, it was authorized by the bullRex pacificus, which ordered that ‘everyone should useonlythis compilation in judgements and in the schools (ut hactantumcompilatione universi utantur in iudiciis et in scholis); and a copy was duly dispatched to the canon law school in Bologna. The image of centralized, authoritarian lawmaking could not be clearer; and that perception is reinforced by an examination of its structure, where the individual extracts are organized systematically under Titles, which define the subject matter. Such a compilation, like theQuinque compilationesthemselves, was the result of an analytical method, which totally obscured the processes of consultation which had preceded many of the decisions, as well as depriving them, in many cases, of their historical context in terms of the identity of the pope, the recipient, the litigants, and the local circumstances. What emerged was a disembodied code, shorn of the nuances and hesitations which had characterized the decisions which it enshrined.

The Origin and Founding of the Ecclesiastical Law Society

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (26) ◽  
pp. 316-319
Author(s):  
Quentin Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Professional Knowledge ◽  
Ecclesiastical Law ◽  
Ecclesiastical Courts ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Shaped Hole ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The Church ◽  
Law Commission

There was an ecclesiastical law shaped hole in the Church of England from the dissolution of Doctors' Commons in 1857 until 1987 when it was filled by the formation of the Ecclesiastical Law Society. In 1947, forty years earlier, the Archbishops' Canon Law Commission had suggested how the hole might be filled. The Commission was appointed in 1939 and published its report under the title The Canon Law of the Church of England (SPCK, 1947). The Report consisted of a learned and authoritative review of the sources of English canon law and made recommendations for its reform, in particular by appending to the Report a body of suggested revised canons. Included in the Report was the following paragraph expressing the hope that a society might be formed for the study of canon law:‘The success of a new code of canons will to a great extent depend on a wider knowledge than at present exists among the clergy of the law of the Church of England, its nature, history, development, and particular characteristics; and it is hoped that the previous chapters of this Report will provide an elementary introduction to the subject. We recommend therefore that those who are responsible for the training of ordination candidates and for the post-ordination training of the clergy should be asked to consider what steps can be taken to give both ordinands and clergy a more professional knowledge of the Church's law and constitution. In giving evidence before the Ecclesiastical Courts Commission in 1883 the late Sir Lewis Dibdin pointed out that since the disappearance of Doctors' Commons in 1857 there had really been no method of teaching or preserving a knowledge of the Ecclesiastical Law. It is impossible at this stage to revive anything like Doctors' Commons, but we would suggest that a society, consisting of clergy, professional historians, and lawyers, be formed for the purpose of studying the Ecclesiastical Law and of suggesting ways in which that law either needs alteration or can be developed to meet new needs. As a rule there is far too little contact and interchange of ideas and points of view between the clergy and ecclesiastical lawyers, and such a society would give opportunities for this. Such a society would train up a number of people competent to advise and help the clergy in the particular problems of Ecclesiastical Law with which from time to time they are confronted.’

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