Historian tracks the medieval origins of our modern-day legal system
The right to defend oneself in front of a judge is but one of many legal principles that originate from medieval canon law.
There is More than Meets the Eye. Undead, Ghosts and Spirits in the Decretum of Burchard of Worms
The Corrector, that is, the nineteenth book of Burchard of Worms’s Decretum, is widely recognized as one of the essential sources for the study of pagan survivals around the year 1000 A.D
How Law Was Taught at a Medieval University
Jason A. Brown focus on a medieval manuscript to show how law was taught in medieval universities.
What Happens to a Widow Who’s Un-Widowed?
By Danièle Cybulskie One thing that can definitely be said for the modern age is that it is much, much easier to communicate.…
Judicial Inquiry as an Instrument of Centralized Government: The Papacy’s Criminal Proceedings against Prelates in the Age of Theocracy (Mid-Twelfth to Mid-Fourteenth Century)
From the end of the twelfth century until the Great Schism, the papacy prosecuted hundreds of prelates who were charged with ‘crimes’ (crimina), ‘excesses’ (excessus), or ‘enormities’ (enormia, enormitates), these words being used interchangeably in the documents.
Magna Carta Conference Offers New Insights Into The 800-year-old Document
Magna Carta just celebrated its 800th birthday this past Monday. In honour of this incredible milestone, King’s College London, and the Magna Carta Project, hosted a 3 day conference dedicated to this historic document.
Bishops and Their Towns
Another #KZOO2015 post – this one examines Bishops and Their Towns.
KZOO 2015: Session #42 – Magna Carta in Context
This coming week I’ll be featuring summaries on some of my favourites sessions and papers from #KZOO2015. I kicked off my first session on Thursday with the Magna Carta.
Intersex in the Middle Ages
A brief look at how the medieval world viewed the Intersex individual.
Gender and Matrimonial Litigation in the Church Courts in the Later Middle Ages: The Evidence of the Court of York
If some later medieval males thought the courts were biased, what might the female perspective have been?
Monsters: An etymological and cultural reading of the ‘freak’ in the Middle Ages
That the medievals did not interpret ‘freaks’ as an insult to creation is the theme of this paper, showing that medieval thought on the disabled body was not as ‘backward’ as the Dark Ages school of popular historical perception teaches
Gratian’s Dilemma: The Man, the Prostitute, the Maid and the Infidel
The 12th-century scholar Gratian offers us a fictitious case of a man who wants to marry a prostitute. It only gets crazier from there!
Emergency Baptisms in the Middle Ages
What to do if the priest might not arrive in time to carry out a baptism?
Intermarriage Between Christians and Jews in Medieval Canon Law
Restrictions on contact between Christians and Jews appeared early in Christian history and remained a prominent feature of ecclesiastical law throughout the Middle Ages.
Least of the laity: the minimum requirements for a medieval Christian
This article investigates the minimum level of religious observance expected of lay Christians by church authorities, and the degree to which legislation and procedures attempted to enforce these standards.
John of Freiburg and the Usury Prohibition in the Late Middle Ages: A Study in the Popularization of Medieval Canon Law
In this dissertation I provide an edition of the treatise on usury (De usuris, bk. 2, tit. 7) contained in the Dominican friar John of Freiburg’s (d. 1314) Summa confessorum (ca. 1298) – a comprehensive encyclopedia of pastoral care that John wrote for the benefit of his fellow friar preachers and all others charged with the cure of souls.
Double sex, double pleasure? Hermaphrodites and the medieval laws
I think the question of how the medieval laws dealt with ambivalent bodies deserves some attention in own right. The more general question is: how did medieval societies deal with experiences that challenged accepted views of what was normal?
Absoluimus uos uice beati petri apostolorum principis. Episcopal authority and the reconciliation of excommunicants in England and Frankia c. 900-c.1050
No mention is made of any rite being followed by Bishop Wulfstan on this occasion, but services for the reconciliation of excommunication are first recorded in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
Inquiring into Adultery and Other Wicked Deeds: Episcopal Justice in Tenth- and Early Eleventh-Century Italy
This article suggests that Italian bishops often had recourse to spiritual penalties to exercise their coercive authority over serious offences during the tenth and early eleventh centuries.
Picturing Gregory: The Evolving Imagery of Canon Law
This paper surveys images created for the opening of the Liber extra between around 1240 and 1350, from a variety of standpoints: iconography, page layout, patrons and readers – and also suggests possible ideological agendas that might be embedded in the illustrations.
Hincmar of Reims on King-making: The Evidence of the Annals of St. Bertin, 861–882
The Histories and Chronicles Hincmar had in mind were presumably Frankish ones; and Lothar II, succeeding his father, thus clearly came into this section of Hincmar’s third category. But of the timing or form of Lothar’s becoming king, Hincmar said not a word, preferring, instead, to spell out the Biblical lesson that a bad king (and he hastily disclaimed any allegation that Lothar’s father had been a bad king) would see the succession depart from his line.
The Church in Fourteenth-Century Iceland: Ecclesiastical Administration, Literacy, and the Formation of an Elite Clerical Identity
In what follows, therefore, I provide a detailed study of Icelandic clergy and the institutions of the Icelandic Church in the period from 1300 to 1404.
The Law’s Violence against Medieval and Early Modern Jews
Ken Pennington examines the issue of forced baptism of Jewish children in the legal literature from the Middle Ages to the early modern period.