Caroline Humfress
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198208419
- eISBN:
- 9780191716966
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208419.003.007
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter demonstrates the forensic expertise of certain key late Roman ecclesiastics and lay Christians. This expertise was not simply gleaned from a general late Roman legal culture; the ...
More
This chapter demonstrates the forensic expertise of certain key late Roman ecclesiastics and lay Christians. This expertise was not simply gleaned from a general late Roman legal culture; the biographical evidence suggests a career-orientated education. The training of leading ecclesiastics in forensic rhetoric may provide one explanation as to why canon law was largely developed through similar techniques as late Roman law. The creative elaboration of these two legal systems was thus reciprocal, rather than parallel. In other words, the development of early canon law in late antiquity was framed by a constant case-specific interaction between forensic practitioners within the church and forensic practice outside the church.Less
This chapter demonstrates the forensic expertise of certain key late Roman ecclesiastics and lay Christians. This expertise was not simply gleaned from a general late Roman legal culture; the biographical evidence suggests a career-orientated education. The training of leading ecclesiastics in forensic rhetoric may provide one explanation as to why canon law was largely developed through similar techniques as late Roman law. The creative elaboration of these two legal systems was thus reciprocal, rather than parallel. In other words, the development of early canon law in late antiquity was framed by a constant case-specific interaction between forensic practitioners within the church and forensic practice outside the church.
Caroline Humfress
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198208419
- eISBN:
- 9780191716966
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208419.003.008
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter argues that the fact that some key late Roman ecclesiastics were trained as forensic practitioners is crucial to explaining how it was that early ‘canon law’ was elaborated using ...
More
This chapter argues that the fact that some key late Roman ecclesiastics were trained as forensic practitioners is crucial to explaining how it was that early ‘canon law’ was elaborated using specific techniques and procedures ‘borrowed’ from Roman law. The various foundational strands of early Judaeo-Christian ‘internal’ ideas and practices, forensic practice and church councils, and forensic practice and the papal elaboration of ‘ecclesiastical’ law are discussed.Less
This chapter argues that the fact that some key late Roman ecclesiastics were trained as forensic practitioners is crucial to explaining how it was that early ‘canon law’ was elaborated using specific techniques and procedures ‘borrowed’ from Roman law. The various foundational strands of early Judaeo-Christian ‘internal’ ideas and practices, forensic practice and church councils, and forensic practice and the papal elaboration of ‘ecclesiastical’ law are discussed.
