38 - The Bible and canon law

Summary

The early canon law

Few things are more firmly rooted in the Middle Ages than the church's canon law. It is true that medieval society produced universities, parliaments and secular legal systems, but these have developed in ways which make the originals hard to recognise now. Canon law on the other hand, acquired its classical shape by about 1350 and despite subsequent developments, still remains closely tied to it. Secularisation has pushed it to the margins of modern life, but within the church it retains its traditional role, and it is not unusual for ancient precepts and examples to be cited even today as valid principles for modern use.

Canon law came into being because the church needed rules to govern its internal life and define its relationship to wider society. The question of who should be permitted to minister in the church's name (and at what level), the administration of the sacraments and the regulation of spiritual matters, including such things as divorce and defamation of character, formed the core issues around which a body of legal principles and precedents was developed. To them were added matters dealing with church finance, the rights and duties of the clergy in relation to secular society and the rules of procedure used in the church courts. As the power of the church increased in the Middle Ages, so its canon law reached more deeply into the lives of ordinary people so that, even after the church retreated from the secular sphere, its legal system left a deposit of principles and procedures which still influence western societies today.