5 - The Scholarship of Canon Law

Summary

Canonistic scholarship in the strict meaning of the term could not and did not come into being until two conditions had been satisfied. The first referred to the method of solving the many contradictions to be found in the numerous collections of the ecclesiastical law, while the second referred to the proper grounding in general jurisprudential matters which could be had only by a professional training in analysing juristic concepts: this was made available in only one mature legal system—the Roman law. Both conditions were fulfilled by the thirties of the twelfth century. There was no such thing as a scholarship of canon law before then: what there was, was intelligent amateurism, and no more. Professional canonistic scholarship was intimately linked with the youthful civilian jurisprudence.

The significance of canonistic scholarship as a source of governmental principles is twofold. First, canonistic scholarship took a vital part in making and developing the canon law itself. There had grown up from the earliest generation of canonists in the mid-twelfth century down to the end of the medieval period an intimate connection between the canonistic schools—quite especially Bologna—and the papacy in its judicial capacity and therefore in its law-creative function. This close link constituted a community of interests which attained a degree of harmonious co-operation unparalleled anywhere else. The official canon law as promulgated by the papacy was the concrete emanation of the abstract and yet very earth-bound canonistic, notably Bolognese scholarship. Pure doctrine came to be distilled into the succinct and precise language of the papal canon law.