PAPAL JURISPRUDENCE AND FORMATION OF CANON LAW

Book review: d’Avray D. L. Papal Jurisprudence, 385–1234: Social Origins and Medieval Reception of Canon Law. New York-Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. XII, 320 p.

Abstract

The review is devoted to consideration of David d'Avray's study of the peculiarities and ways of development of medieval papal jurisprudence during 385–1234 from Late Antiquity to the creation of the official collection of papal decretals "Liber extra" of Pope Gregory IX, which was (intended) to replace all previous decretal collections. It was established that D. d'Avray set himself the task of studying the "social ground" of papal decretalism. It is noted that he singled out two stages of bursts of papal jurisdictional activity: 1) from the first surviving decretal of Pope Siritius (dated 385) to the decretals of Popes Leo I (440–461) and Gelasius I (492–496) and the appearance of the first significant and influential collections decretalium, starting with "Dionysiana" (c. 500); 2) from the collection of previous papal decretals in Gratian's "Decretum" (c. 1140) through the era of decretal collections to the "Liber extra" of Pope Gregory IX (1234). It is emphasized that d'Avray pays much more attention to the first, early, late antique stage of decretalistic, his conclusions are based on a deep study of early decretalia and the era of their creation; the second stage is laid out more concisely, in some ways even superficially. It is noted that D. d'Avray builds his work according to the traditional chronological presentation of the material, but is forced to resort to certain abbreviations and generalizations in order to fit the personal and institutional development of one of the dominant branches of medieval science – canon law – into a rather limited scope of work. A plus of this approach is a clearly stated author's position on the issues under consideration. The author's approaches to the material and conclusions are based on the use of J. G. A. Pocock's "intellectual history" methods. It was noted that the reason for the spread of papal decrees around 400 and again in 1200 was, according to D. d'Avray, that the change in social conditions led to widespread uncertainty amid complexities in Christian rituals, hierarchies, the status of the clergy, attitudes towards heretics and doctrinal issues. One can agree with the author's opinion that this was the "social basis" for the development ("surges") of papal jurisprudence. It is concluded that D. d'Avray combined a thorough study of texts and manuscripts with a broader social analysis, brought new ideas and proposed new frameworks in the development of the problematic of papal decretals.