Medieval Law - Test 3

Canon vs secular law

Canon = For church officials, by church officials

Secular = Applies to everyone else, by local, regional, and later state authorities

Roman law date…

500

Roman and Germanic customary law dates…

500-800

• In 536 Justinian issues re-codified roman law: corpus iuris civilis

Territorial law dates…

800-1100

• Rediscovery of Corpus Iuris Civilis

Re-integration of Roman law with territorial laws

1100-1200

About Justinians codification of law

Institutes - Introduction to Roman law, lost for centuries

Codex - Compilation of imperial legislation, 2-6 c. Known and used throughout medieval period

Digest - Compilation of rulings/excerpts from Roman jurists, part of what was recovered in 11th c.

Novellae - Justinians own legislation, lost & recovered piecemeal

About Germanic customary law

• Originally oral

• Only written after contact with the Romans

• Concept of the outlaw

• Personal, not territorial

About Carolingian law…

• More sophisticated than Germanic law, but based off of it.

• Aim: reform of Frankish law, written record of laws of all nations under Charlemagne’s rule

• Little long-term success

About post-Carolingian law…

• Charles the Bald vs. Lothair vs. Louis the German and vikings cause Charlemagne’s system to be changed

• Legal systems in Europe become fragmented again

• Development of feudal system

Feudalism…

Social system of mutual bonds and obligations where public authority is in private hands

• Based on granting of a fief by a lord to a vassal

About feudalism as a term…

Too ambiguous and overly broad. Describes a wide range of social, economic and political systems

Feudal law

Developed 11th-12th c.

• Protection of local lords’ rights against royal encroachment

• Magna carta outgrowth of Feudal law

About Canon law…

• Applies to the church but also any practices associated with the church (Marriage, dowries, divorce and wills)

• After rediscovery of Corpus Iuris Civilis Gratian writes Decretum

• Can be traced to the earliest days in the church