Book Review

This volume is the product of a scholarly need and a good idea. The need is for an English translation of enough of the medieval canon law to make its nature and resources better known to students. Much of the Roman law has been translated into English, but its canonical partner in the ius commune has not been so lucky. The idea is that the prefaces that were used to introduce many of the canonical collections from the early Middle Ages might provide a short and effective way to meet the need, or at any rate some part of it. Most of the prefaces are not long, and they offer a look at the working assumptions of the compilers.	1
In seven chronological sections the editors have selected and translated prefaces from thirty-five canonical collections and (for the later period) commentaries and other introductions to canonical texts. To each they have added a short but informative introduction, one that might even stand on its own as a mini-history of the work of canonists during each period. Thus the first substantive chapter provides translations from seven collections dated between c. 500 and the early eighth century; its introduction surveys the scholarship that has been devoted to them. The final chapter does the same for the collectors of papal decretals between 1190 and 1245, including bulls of promulgation for the third and fifth compilationes antiquae and the Gregorian Decretals (1234). The editors compensate in a measure for the absence of any preface in Gratian's Decretum (c. 1140) by including the prefaces from six contemporary summae on it.	2
There is much to be learned from the work. The venerable character of the sentiment that inspired the Decretum—that there was confusion and contradiction in the sources and that something should be done about the situation—stands out in particular. It was widely shared among early medieval canonists, who regarded it as impeding the "ideal of a well-ordered Church" (69) and endeavored to correct it by a prudent arrangement of the texts. Some of the sentiments repeated in the prefaces, assertions of the compiler's unworthiness for example, do not take readers very far in understanding the canon law, but there is also much useful information here about diverse aspects of it. The place of custom in law, the role of the Roman pontiff as supreme judge, and the room for prudent variation in law's application are all nicely illustrated and learnedly introduced. Following the advice of the twelfth-century canonist Rolandus (189)—that "the prudent and solicitous reader should endeavor to discover for himself" what riches the law contains—will also pay dividends to readers of this work.	3
If a criticism be called for, it must be that the editors stopped too soon. The importance of the canon law in the development of Western law and government lies mainly in the influence exerted by later commentators of the Decretals and the authors of more specialized works from the developed ius commune. Most of the late medieval canonists wrote prefaces, some of them quite lengthy. Although the difference between them and the earlier collections is not quite as stark as that between Glanvill and the Leges Henrici Primi, the comparison is not farfetched. Three or four of the later prefaces might profitably have been included.	4
R. H. Helmholz University of Chicago

Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.