Volume 111, Issue 1

In the period from the 10 th to the 12 th century the relation between liturgy and canon law is more and more characterized by the scholastic methodology. Cognitive and critical argumentation on the one side, and especially the knowledge of the biblical, patristic and medieval sources on the other side require to learn the juridical implications of liturgical acts. Insofar we can speak about a so-called liturgical (or a sacramental) law. The best clerical authors in this time became (academic) experts in the two fields to reflect both the theological and the juridical problems, and so their tracts are orientated bifocally. The actual paper first shows the mutual influences of theological and juridical thinking using the scholastic methods in the early phase of the high middle ages, second the personal implications of a double competence, and third the interdisciplinary reception of theological and canonistic sources, preparing the forthcoming platform of high complexity.

The article analyses the state of research in Germany on the Rota Romana and describes, for the first time in detail, the process of the Rota on the basis of the case records still existent from the 16 th century. The second part looks for traces left by the Rota at the Imperial Chamber Court (Reichskammergericht). Research on the files of the Rota is challenging since the records have been divided up into various individual series. This makes the reconstruction of the individual, original files difficult, if not impossible – especially since other aids, such as registers are lacking.

This contribution presents new insights concerning the textual transmission of the Summa Quaestionum of Honorius of Kent in the manuscripts 640 and 649 of the Bibliothèque municipale in Douai. In particular, based on a close analysis of the tituli used in both manuscripts and the table of tituli on fol. 42v of Douai 649, I demonstrate that Douai 640 is not an independent manuscript, but was originally an integral part of Douai 649. In the light of this new finding, I then discuss some of the implications of the transmission of Honorius’ Summa in Douai 649, a composite manuscript which has been linked to the Paris school of canon law of the early 13 th century.

The imperial ban on Luther and the Edict of Worms, which placed him under the imperial ban, could not be enforced because of the appeal to the council, which was decided at the Nuremberg imperial diets of 1522‒1524. The emperor remained in Spain until 1530 to secure his rule and because of his French Wars in Spain. In the slipstream of these severe internal and external crises of the empire, the Lutheran movement was able to spread to many territories and solidify into Protestant regional churches. With the consolidation of the Reformation, the religious schism led to a split in the legal conception and legal order in the empire, because canon law and religiously relevant imperial law were understood and executed divergently by the two religious parties. The dual confessionalisation of the empire led to the interim development of a dual confessional peace and legal order. In 1555 and 1648, it developed into a permanent secular framework for the opposing religious parties, which already in the confessional age formed a forerunner of the modern pluralistic constitutional law on religion.

Until now, the Protestant influence during the 16 th century was seen as the reason for a weakened interest in canon law in France. In fact, however, there were several reasons for re-examining it in a variety of ways. The first concern was the definition of the Gallican liberties of the French church in the ongoing tension between the king and the pope. In addition to the weakening of the church’s claims, a historical interest in the history of canon law also began, particularly in the Middle Ages, as these texts showed a stronger position of the Frankish kings with regard to the church. This led to humanist-led research into canon law, including the first academic editions, which must be seen as the beginning of canon law.

Johann Victor Bredt was born in Barmen in 1879. He studied law in ­Tübingen, Göttingen and Bonn from 1898 and received his doctorate in law, Leipzig 1901, and his dr. phil. in political economy, in Bonn 1904. In1909 his habilitation thesis on the ­Polish question in the Ruhr area was published, and he was appointed adjunct professor in Marburg. In 1911 he joined the Prussian state parliament as a member of the “Freikonservative Partei”. During the First World War he suffered a serious injury to his lower jaw. He presented the “Reichspartei des deutschen Mittelstandes (Wirtschaftspartei)“ in the state parliament from 1921 to 1924, and in the Reichstag from 1924 to 1933. For a few months in 1930, he was ­Minister of Justice. Bredt had been active in the Moderamen (leadership) of the Reformed Federation since 1924 and was committed to a merger of the Reformed churches and communities into a ­unified ­Reformed Church in Germany. When this failed, he left the Reformed League in 1934. Bredt wrote three volumes of “New Protestant Canon Law in Prussia”, Berlin 1912, 1922 and 1927. In the first volume he deals with the history of canon law and the relationship between state and church. In the second volume he presents the corporate law of the Protestant Church. In the third volume he describes the seven regional churches in which new church constitutions had come into force. Bredt’s work is characterized by his Reformed confession and research into the Reformed communities on the Lower Rhine after the Reformation.

The Salzburg manuscript Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 532 Helmst. preserves an excerpt from the Collectio Hibernensis, a canon law collection widely used in the Early Middle Ages. This excerpt has not yet been studied in detail by scholars. 25 out of 26 passages were taken from the Hibernensis (A and B versions), while a further one comes from the Moralia in Iob by Gregory the Great. The main thematic focus is on judgeship, the value of truth and penance. The use of Tironian notes, which are deciphered for the first time in this article, shows a confident handling of shorthand in early medieval Salzburg.

The article explores how pre-modern canon law addressed sexual child abuse. It demonstrates that there were both advocates for a stringent approach toward clerical offenders and voices that sought to protect perpetrators, with social and political factors often influencing these positions. Moreover, the special protection of children from sexual exploitation was mentioned, but not especially incorporated within canon law.