Canonical Collections

doi:10.1017/9781108559133.007

7 - Canonical Collections

from Part I

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 June 2019

Roy Flechner

Edited by

Philip L. Reynolds

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Philip L. Reynolds: Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta

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Summary

With over seventy surviving texts, canonical collections appear to have been the most prevalent form of normative codification in the early medieval Latin West. Rather than being merely compilations of derivative material, the choices that were made in selecting the material and organizing it are important windows onto regional variation in doctrinal observance and in ecclesiastical governance. Canonical collections are also important sources for social history thanks to the preoccupation of many a collection with such matters of social significance as marriage, landholding, and the socially disadvantaged. This chapter includes a sketch of the development of these collections, insofar as a clear trajectory of development can be discerned. The account is broadly chronological, with a reflection on central themes that have punctuated the study of collections: their sources, their authority, their main concerns, the motivations for their compilation, and their impact.

Keywords

Apostolic Canons, canonical collections, Dionysiana, Hibernensis, penitentials, Vetus Gallica

Type: Chapter
Information: Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium , pp. 182 - 197

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559133.007 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2019

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References

Primary Sources

Reynolds, Roger E., “Law, Canon: To Gratian.” In Strayer, Joseph R. et al. (eds.), Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 13 vols. (New York: Scribner, 1982–1989), 6:395–413.Google Scholar

Pennington, Kenneth, “The Growth of Church Law.” In Casiday, A. and Norris, F. W. (eds.), Cambridge History of Christianity II: Constantine to c. 600 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 386–402.Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

Maassen, Friedrich, Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des canonischen Rechts im Abendlande bis zum Ausgange des Mittelalters. Graz: Leuschner & Lubensky, 1870.Google Scholar

Fournier, Paul and Le Bras, Gabriel, Histoire des collections canoniques en Occident, depuis les Fausses Décrétales jusqu’au Décret de Gratien. 2 vols. Paris: Sirey, 1931–32.Google Scholar

Kéry, Lotte, Canonical Collections of the Early Middle Ages (ca. 400–1140): A Bibliographical Guide to the Manuscripts and Literature. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1999.Google Scholar

Fowler-Magerl, Linda, Clavis Canonum: Selected Canon Law Collections Before 1140. Hannover: Hahnsche, 2005.Google Scholar