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Fides als normatives Konzept in Kanonessammlungen

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Published/Copyright: November 5, 2015
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Abstract

This essay investigates the use of the term fides in the field of canon law, specifically marriage law, from the eighth through the twelfth century. The canonical collections of this period present divergent applications of fides: in a religious context it meant ‘faith’ and in a feudal context ‘fidelity’, but it was also used to describe a ‘promise’ made within the context of marriage. Whereas the earlier collections – such as the ‘Collectio Hibernensis’ and the manual of Regino – predominantly employed fides to describe religious faith, later collections – such as the ‘Decretum of Burchard’ – applied the term more broadly, including its meaning as ‘promise’. It was especially Gratian who used fides as ‘promise’ in his attempt to structure marriage law. In order to accomplish this, Gratian dwelled on excerpts from Antiquity in which the Roman legal understanding of this term was preserved. Nonetheless, Gratian did not use fides consistently: he also used votum, vovere, and desponsare to express the promise made when entering into a marriage. Therefore, Gratian stands at the beginning of a structured analysis of marriage law, but still in search of a consistent use of legal terms. It was up to the later decretists and decretalists to establish a common terminology.

Online erschienen: 2015-11-5
Erschienen im Druck: 2015-11-1

© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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