This long-awaited history of medieval canon law offers both a comprehensive and authoritative volume that runs the gamut of analyses and time periods. Comprising many of the field's top scholars, it brings forth international expertise aimed at introducing the “basic history, sources, and doctrines of canon law” (6) alongside new directions and discoveries. The emphasis sits most firmly in the former camp, with a clear focus in many chapters on the explanatory frameworks, historical figures, and contemporary medieval sources underpinning the law and its development into a coherent system throughout the Middle Ages.
Divided into three core parts, this edited volume provides a solid overview on: the history of canon law from the early Church to the “time of renewal” in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, as defined by distinct periods of activity; the principal sources and dissemination of medieval canon law, best illustrated through the likes of theological discourse, legal education, church councils, manuscripts and printed books; and, the law's influence on society, broadly conceived into categories on the law of judges, legal procedures, the clergy, marriage, and crime. Overall, by virtue of its organisational structure and list of contributors, each of the book's sections contains a great depth and diversity of perspectives on the law, culminating with closing remarks on the spirit of canon law that attempt to explain its influence and impact on western legal culture writ large.
Intended for novice and expert readers alike, this collection aims through its thirty interconnected chapters to render the subject of medieval canon law less “forbidding” (6) and more accessible. In the lamentable absence of solid introductory texts in the English language, this welcome volume demonstrates at once the subject's complexity and richness. The editors and authors alike seek to re-frame and revivify an important historical field, challenging readers to understand and appreciate the centrality of canon law to life and society in the Middle Ages and beyond.
