The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-06-19


already the seat Of nourishinR schools Of dialeo.
tic and literature. After Irnorius upheld the
election Of a schismAtlc Pope u11sl. tho new
school Of civil lawyers became frankly imperis
alist. looking upon the law as furnishing
an armory Of texts from which tho divine
rights and universal claims OF the Roman EN-.
peror could DO deduced. though also treating 10
as an intellectual discipline, and almost as q
literary exercise. Wealth, honor and political
Importance wero sttainable by men who pee
sessod the koy at once to theoretical knowledge
and to success in practical life. Even earlier
than at Paris. the law schools at Bologna be-
came organized and permanent. Before tho END
OF the century the crowd Of mature foreign stu.
dents who fiocked to hear the successors Of
Irnerius had set up the student university Of
Bologna, the founding of which IL as much Of
an epoch In the history OF European thought 40
is that OF the university Of masters at Paris.
On the other hand. the Church had long had it,
own courts and its own law; but the victory Of
the Hildsbrandino system gave q new impoP-
lance to the eoolosisstical tribunals and to the
canon law which they administered It was the
aim of the Church reformors TO draw q hard-ands
fast line between Church and State, and to bind
together the scattered and often antagonistio ooFs
porations, out of which tho Church was constis
tuted, into . single, solf-governing. seltsuflcinn
independent body, Of which the Pope was to b
the absolute monarch. All through the eleventh
century efforts were made by the leading eccle.
~sisStical lawyers to do for the law Of the Church
what was already being done for tho law Of
the State. Italy witnessed most of these
attempts, but the canonists Of Germany and
Gaul were not greatly behindhand, and the most
famous of the early compilations, which appeared
in111h, was tho work Of q North.Frenoh church.
man. Two, Bishop Of Chartres. These prclimi.
nary efforts were superseded by tho so-called
Decretum, or, more accurately, Concordance Of
Canons. complied by Gratian. which seems TO
have seen the light about 1142. Gratian was a
monk Of tho new order of Camaldoli, living In q
convent at Bologna. The work which he pub
lished was . text book. the effort Of a private
student, with no other authority than what
It could m from It's own morits. So great
wore its merits. however. that 1t swept all its
predecessors out of the field and soon won
something Of the authority that would attach
to q definite codincation of previous ecclesiasti.
cal Jurisprudence. Thencoforward the study Of
canon law stood side by side with that Of the
civil law at Bologna, and the town of IrnO-
riuB and Gratian became the intellectual centre
of the groat controversies of Church and State
which then distracted Europe. Before long the
canon law became as elaborate and oomprehon.
Sive q system % that civil law which It copied,
developed, and sometimes reacted against. The
- SnAN VA uoU@
arated from the civilians on the one hand and
the theoloRtans on the other. Just as tho prsc.
tical advantages OF the study of civil law called
away tho quondam votaries of the Improbable
secular study Of literature, 90 did the practical
uses of canon law divert active and ambitious
churchmen from the academic study of theology.
Law became the attractive science, as we'll
for ardent ocolosisstios as for mon Of the
world. II 1t involved less speculative activity
than fha afrdiaa IL e,-A,zd.A "a - --a
vantage of helping to bridge over the gulf be.
tween the little world of isolated students and
tho broad world Of everyday life. As the re.
vival Of dialectio renewed mems interest in
abstract science, so did tho revival of law
broaden mons practical interests. II, in the
long run. 1t gave weapons to the empire, as we'll
as to the Papacy. the first result was to com.
plete the equipment of the hierarchy for
the business of ruling the world. While
tho civilians empire was q theory, the
oanonist's papacy was o fact. As the
living head of q living system the Pope
became a constant fountain of now legislation
for tho canon law, while the civil law remained
as 1t had been in Justinian's time, with little
power of adaptation to the needs of the chang.
ing state of society. Stimulated by the 70.
lgious revival and the monastic movement, VIC.
torious over nascont heresy. vet invigorated BY
tho now activity of human thought, protected
by the enthusiasm which had brought about the
Crusades, q State within the State. with her
own law. her own officers. and her own wonder
full organization, the Church of the twelfth con-
fury stood at the very height of her power, and
drew fresh strength even from the sources that
might we'll have brought about her ruin.