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3 results

  • 18 - The Codes of Canon Law: 1917, 1983, 1990

  • from Part III - Canon Law
  • Edited by Joëlle Rollo-Koster, University of Rhode Island, Robert A. Ventresca, King’s University College at Western University, Melodie H. Eichbauer, Florida Gulf Coast University, Miles Pattenden, University of Oxford
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Papacy
    Published online:
    28 February 2025
    Print publication:
    20 March 2025, pp 466-491

  • Summary

    Canon law has played a role in the life of the Church since its earliest days. For many centuries, it was largely customary and local. However, from the sixth century on, the Roman pontiff played an increasingly prominent role in shaping and applying this law in the West. This tendency to centralize authority in the hands of the Roman pontiff reached its culmination with the promulgation of the first Code of Canon Law in 1917. Cut off from the law’s roots in history and theology, this code derived its force from the will of the pontiff who enacted it. The Second Vatican Council, from 1962 to 1965, attempted to balance the role of the pope with that of the College of Bishops and to move toward decentralization of authority by enhancing the figure of the diocesan bishop and creating episcopal conferences. These conciliar efforts have been implemented, at least in part, in the revised Latin code of 1983 and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches of 1990. Nevertheless, subsequent legislating has come largely through the unilateral action of the Roman pontiff.

Papal Jurisprudence, 385–1234
  • Social Origins and Medieval Reception of Canon Law
  • D. L. d'Avray
  • Published online:
    10 March 2022
    Print publication:
    17 March 2022
  • Why did bishops turn to the papacy for advice in late Antiquity? And what does the reception of these decretals reveal about the legal and religious culture of the mid-thirteenth century? This interpretative volume seeks to explain the first decretal age of late antiquity, placing the increased demand for papal jurisprudence – long before it exerted its influence through religious fear – within its social broad context. D. L. d'Avray then traces the reception of this jurisprudence through to the mid-thirteenth century, and the post-Gratian decretal age. Along the way he explores the role of Charlemagne and 'Pseudo-Isidore', which included many genuine early decretals alongside forged ones. Similarities between the Latin world c. 400 and c. 1200 thus help explain parallels between the two decretal ages. This book also analyses decretals from both ages in chapters on pagan marriages, clerics in minor orders, and episcopal elections. For both ages the relation between canon law and other religious genres is elucidated, demonstrating many fascinating parallels and connections.

  • 6 - The legal underpinnings

  • from PART II - FORGING A CHRISTIAN WORLD, 1200–1300
  • Edited by Miri Rubin, Queen Mary University of London, Walter Simons, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Christianity
    Published online:
    28 March 2010
    Print publication:
    02 July 2009, pp 89-98

  • Summary

    The legal underpinnings of the Western church experienced a major transformation during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. This was a period in which papal legislation found its stride, in the form of conciliar decrees and papal decisions. Canon law collections provide a window into the rediscovery of Justinian's compilations, because they incorporated snippets of Roman law as it became available. Later papal legislation appears in other similar collections, including the Liber sextus of Pope Boniface VIII. Law professors at Bologna and elsewhere lectured on the collections of decretals, producing commentaries and summas. Medieval legal procedure relied heavily on both Roman and canon law. With respect to the laws of the church, the move towards complexity was also a product of the encounter with Justinian's Roman law. The thematic scope of canon law was in the main laid down with the Gratian's Decretum, which took its cue from the wide range of matters that French bishop Ivo treated in the Panormia.