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IMC 2014: Sessions

Session 1628: Canon Law, IV: Did Gratian Matter?

Thursday 10 July 2014, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Iuris Canonici Medii Aevi Consociatio (ICMAC) / Church, Law & Society in the Middle Ages (CLASMA)
Organisers:Kathleen Cushing, Department of History, Keele University
Danica Summerlin, Stephan Kuttner Institute of Medieval Canon Law, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Moderator/Chair:Danica Summerlin, Stephan Kuttner Institute of Medieval Canon Law, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Paper 1628-a'Praescriptione omnia iura tolluntur'
(Language: English)
Harry Dondorp, Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Index terms: Canon Law, Ecclesiastical History, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Paper 1628-bGratian's Triumph
(Language: English)
Anne J. Duggan, Department of History, King's College London
Index terms: Canon Law, Ecclesiastical History, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Abstract

Gratian's Decretum has long been considered as a fundamental turning point in the history of the Western legal tradition, ushering in a new era of legal teaching. This session looks to debate the practical, pedagogical, and legal importance of the Decretum in the 12th and early 13th centuries, and hence whether Gratian 'mattered' by investigating a range of questions, inter alia, about the nature, purpose, and use of learned law before and after the Decretum, the relationship of the old and new law in Gratian and his commentators, the interaction of canon, civil, and customary law, and broader issues about the prevailing narrative in the historiography of medieval canon law.