Book Review

The subtitle most aptly describes this monograph. Cushing focuses on Bishop Anselm (II) of Lucca (c. 1040–1086), one of the influential personalities in the ecclesiastical reform movement of the late eleventh century who distinguished himself by intellect, devotion to Pope Gregory VII, personal sanctity, and legal acumen. His canon law collection, the Collectio canonum (hereafter Cc) composed sometime during 1081–86, was a striking and polemical expression of the revolutionary program associated with that pope. Anselm insisted on papal primacy, used canonistic texts (many of Pseudo-Isidorian provenance) creatively, and contrived an innovative justification of the Church's legal right to coerce its enemies. As is the case with much canonistic literature, however, the Cc is available to modern readers only in an incomplete and unsatisfactory edition. In this book Cushing relies upon one (of four) recensions, and especially on a single Vatican manuscript thereof, to provide a working edition.	1
In the first part of the book Cushing discusses the medieval papacy and canon law on the eve of the so-called "Gregorian Revolution" (c. 1150). Although prominent ecclesiastical reformers held diverse viewpoints on matters of detail, they possessed the common goal of creating an ideal Christian society cleansed from the abuses derived from bad customs, faulty traditions, and corrupt practices. They also agreed not only that the popes should claim a formative and active leadership role in reform, but also that canon law should be the means whereby reform could be implemented and safeguarded. Ecclesiastical reform, the reinforcement of and supplement to good traditions, was most feasible when the papacy acted as an independent juridical institution whose discretion in the interpretation of law both harmonized existent legal texts and justified new legislation if necessity arose. Cushing illustrates how these perceptions became steadily more important during the 1050s and 60s as clerical and lay reformers battled the abuses of simony and clerical immorality. By the time of his election to the papacy in 1073, Gregory VII not only recognized a unique bond between the papacy and the Church's legal system and stressed the need for new, improved canonical collections, but he was also determined to move the reform itself into a second stage whereby the role of the clergy (sacerdotium) in matters such as ecclesiastical elections and investitures would be exalted. Although Gregory's own legislation did not figure prominently in contemporary canonical collections (Anselm's Cc included), his rigid, uncompromising, and unequivocal insistence on the importance of canon law and on the pope's position as definer of that law would have a great future.	2
Part 2 of the volume comprises the heart of Cushing's study; in four chapters she depicts Anselm as a model "Gregorian" bishop, details his canonical sources for the Cc, illustrates how this legal collection functioned both as a legal vindication of church reform and a determined defense of papal primacy in the Church and in the world, and analyzes Anselm's justification for the use of licit coercion in ecclesiastical matters.	3
Anselm's collection was one of several legal compendia composed during the 1070s and 1080s. Cushing notes that this canonist's use of rubrics to individual received texts (chapters) was a means for the compiler's interpretation or even manipulation of the texts' meaning in an unambiguous polemical defense of reformist/papalist objectives. An appropriately crafted rubric could emphasize, generalize, universalize, decontextualize, or update content. Several earlier canonistic collections served as intermediary sources for the texts; nearly five hundred chapters (out of 1149) came from collections of Ps.Isidorian decretals or from the anonymous Collection in 74 Titles (written c. 1075; hereafter 74T).	4
Cushing spends the remainder of this chapter determining how faithful Anselm was to his original and intermediate sources. As regards Ps.Isidorian material--in numerical terms the most important single source--Anselm often creatively altered the intention of the texts in order to promote Roman primacy. In this way the papacy was transformed from a distant guardian for local bishops to a universal superior over bishops. Anselm effected this transformation through his rubrics, text modification, text omission, and removal of texts from original context. Anselm also drew texts out of the 74T which he would sometimes alter, re-order, or re-direct in order to emphasize Roman primacy in an explicit and more encompassing manner. When he considered a text in 74T to be less satisfactory for his purposes, Anselm did not hesitate to utilize other more suitable versions of the same text found in different canonical collections.	5
Cushing did not subject to close analysis those texts in Cc not derived from Ps. Isidore or the 74T, especially those from patristic authors. Nonetheless she tentatively concludes that while Anselm faithfully and accurately transmitted these texts, his use of rubrics often "steered" these texts to new uses in support of Roman primacy and clerical morality. Here also Anselm could utilize Augustine's writings to justify the use of coercive force against schismatics. To sum up: Cushing holds that Anselm was not capricious, but instead deliberate in his treatment of texts; he interpreted the sources in order to provide a collection fit for an era of revolutionary reform.	6
The third chapter of the second part covers two subjects: a comparison between Anselm's and Gregory VII's views regarding Roman primacy, and an explication of Anselm's legal vindication of church reform. The reception into the Cc of actual texts by this pope was slight, and Cushing explores several explanations for this fact. On the other hand, many of the themes enunciated in Gregory's Dictates of the Pope (Dictatus papae) did find resonance in the Cc, but with a difference in tone. Anselm was more equivocal, more subtle, less specific, and less strident in his description of papal prerogatives. In at least three cases Anselm simply rejected the pope's claims. For his part, Anselm derived his defense of papal supremacy from the pope's caritative duty to preserve the well-being of the Church, and thus the canonist linked papal authority with the pastoral responsibility to do what was necessary. Anselm grounded in both morality and law the Gregorian program to reform the Church.	7
The weakening of Gregory VII's political position after 1080 and the deepening of schism with the Church obliged polemicists to deal with questions stemming from the existence of rival obediences. Anselm was no exception: the final two books of the Cc dealt with the topics of excommunication and "just punishment" (de iusta vindicta); implicit to both was the concept of licit coercion. Anselm's approach was pro-active, aggressive in its goal of confronting and incorporating dissidents, whether willingly or by force. While the concept of licit coercion ultimately went back to Augustine, Anselm now linked it with his own image of the caritative pastor who must attempt to secure the salvation of schismatics by all means available, whether by persuasion or by constraint. In cases where the secular power was unwilling or incapable of exercising coercion on behalf of the Church, Anselm recognized an ecclesiastical right of independent action.	8
While Anselm's Cc was disseminated throughout Italy in the late-eleventh/early twelfth centuries, it never achieved the popularity of some other collections and fell into oblivion after the appearance of Gratian's Decretum some sixty years later. Its partisan and polemical tone marked it as a product of its time and assured its eventual abandonment. Yet Cushing is surely correct to note that Anselm's ability to link the Church's past with the cause of reform under papal leadership made his collection a worthy object of study by anyone interested in medieval canon law. Two appendices and five tables detail Cushing's close analyses of texts in the Cc; a bibliography and index round out the volume.	9
Robert C. Figueira Lander University

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