Law in a Culture of Theology

Law in a Culture of Theology: The Use of Canon Law by Parisian Theologians, ca. 1120–ca. 1220 considers the study of law within its intellectual environment. It demonstrates that theologians associated with the schools of Paris in the twelfth century, particularly Peter the Chanter and his circle, had a working knowledge of Romano-canonical tradition and thought about the human context of the law, which, in turn, reflected the environment in which each master worked. It begins by showing the extent to which law was woven into the fabric of the schools of Paris, and follows with individual case studies.

These case studies—marriage in Hugh of St. Victor’s De Sacramentis and Peter Lombard’s Sententiae, excommunication in Peter the Chanter’s Summa de sacramentis et animae consiliis, crusade activity and heresy in Robert of Couçon’s Summa penitentiae, homicide in Robert of Flamborough’s Liber poenitentialis, and the faces of greed in Thomas of Chobham’s Summa confessorum—demonstrate how each theologian drew upon legal thought, for what end he was using it, and how his use of law fit into contemporary legal thinking. A competency in law proved valuable to, and was tailored for, different types of ecclesiastical roles: teachers showing students how to analytically navigate complex questions of pastoral care, papal judge-delegate on the cusp of full-time administration on behalf of the papacy, penitentiarius of St. Victor and the students at the University of Paris, or diocesan management.

This book will be a useful resource for all students and researchers interested in medieval canon law, medieval theology and pre-modern law.

Melodie H. Eichbauer is Professor of Medieval History at Florida Gulf Coast University, U.S.A. Her research focuses on the dissemination of legal knowledge; the interpretation of law; and the ways in which social, political, and intellectual developments and trends shaped both between c.1000 and c.1500. She authored the second edition of Medieval Canon Law, an expanded and revised version of the first edition by James A. Brundage (2023). She is the editor of A Cultural History of Genocide, Vol. 2: The Middle Ages (2021), the co-editor with Danica Summerlin of The Use of Canon Law in Ecclesiastical Administration, 1000–1250 (2018); and the co-editor with Kenneth Pennington of Law as Profession and Practice in Medieval Europe: Essays in Honor of James A. Brundage (2011).

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