February Colloquium: Justice / Injustice

February 20

10.30 – 11.00
Coffee and Registration

11.00 – 11.45
Roy Flechner (Trinity College, Cambridge)
The Bible and the Law in early medieval Ireland

Early medieval Irish law---mainly ecclesiastical but also secular---drew systematically upon the Old and New Testaments. The extent to which Irish law seems to have depended on biblical precepts, is without precedent in contemporary European legal culture. However, since the middle of the eighth century, Irish canonical works that circulated throughout continental Europe, were instrumental in bringing Frankish and Italian canon law to adopt the bible as a source as well. Consequently, legal applications of the bible can also serve as a measure for tracing the influence of Irish learning abroad. In my paper I shall be asking why Irish lawyers chose to tap the bible in the first place, how the Old Testament was rehabilitated for Christian use, what role exegesis played in legislation, and how Mosaic precepts articulated with traditional Irish vernacular law that was, essentially, pagan.

11.45 – 12.30
Bronach Kane (QMUL)
Pastoralia, Reform and Memory in the English Church Courts

The ecclesiastical reforms of the twelfth and thirteenth century initiated a widespread programme to improve clerical education and better meet the spiritual needs of the laity. Yet this effervescence coincided with a period of related legal reforms that elevated the role of inquisition. Fundamental changes to confession and the examination of witnesses brought a renewed focus on the classical concept of 'circumstances' and a keener interest in memory. A novel focus on introspection, education and inquiry attended these developments in pastoral care and the law, that appear to have reached their apogee in litigation generated by the ecclesiastical courts. Witness depositions contained in the voluminous archives of the church courts of Canterbury and York offer an opportunity to examine the response of the laity to these reforms. This paper will consider how far these developments concerned the ecclesiastical courts, and to what extent these influences are present in extant legal depositions.

12.30 – 1.30 
LUNCH, Please bring your own.  Hot and cold drinks will be available.

1.30 – 2.15
Barbara Bombi (University of Kent, Canterbury)
Legal Representatives at the Papal Court in the Fourteenth Century

The paper deals with the work of lawyers and representatives acting and the papal curia during the thirteenth and fourteenth century. The historiographical background is provided by German historiography and the recent publication of James Brundage on the role of legal practitioners in the Middle Ages. The paper will especially address the training of legal representatives and their knowledge of the learned law, focusing on the different typologies of legal representation which were required to petition the papacy. Similarly, I will address the relationship between local ecclesiastical courts and the papal curia, which acted as court of appeal in many law suits from the twelfth century onwards. Some case-studies will be taken in the second part of the paper in order to add relevant examples to the discussion.

2.15 – 3.00
Danica Summerlin (Queen’s College, Cambridge)
Local concerns and papal legislation in the late twelfth century

3.00 – 3.15
Tea

3.15 – 4.00
Discussion

4.00 – 5.00
AGM