On Fri, 17 May 1996, Richard Landes wrote:
> > I am currently working on marriage in early medieval Ireland. In the
> > Irish canon law collection of the 8c known as the Hibernensis, the canon
> > lawyers have used the Old Testament to justify concubinage and polygyny
> > which were apparently common practices amongst the Irish aristocracy.
> > More generally, the Irish canon lawyers found justification for many
> > other Irish practices, such as marriage within the bounds of
> > consanguinity, in the Old Testament. Was this a common device in other
> > countries in general and specifically with regard to marriage? (This is
> > really directed at you Professor Brundage)
The Hibernensis had a rather limited influence in among other places
Poitou/Limoges-- though even here it was hardly a dominant influence.
For a copy of the collection, see Die irische Kannonesammlung (2nd ed.;
Leipzig, 1885). On the influence of the collection, see Paul Fournier, De
l'influence de la collection irlandaise sur la formation des collections
canoniques, Nouvelle revue histoire de droit francais et etranger, XXXIII,
1899, pp. 27-78. Hubert Mordek, Kirchenrecht und Reform im Frankenreich
(Berlin, 1875) has some useful info on the collection and its influence as
does Roger E. Reynolds, Unity and Diversity in Carolingian Canon Law
Collections: The Case of the Collectio Hibernensis and Its Derivatives,
Carolingian Essays,ed. Uta-Renate Blumenthal (Washington, 1975),
pp.99-135.
> more general question: if we have some cases wherethe clergy is
> sollicitous of aristocratic marriage habits, finding justification for
> them in the HB (for ex), and others where they are most aggressively
> pressing a purist agenda which conflicts with aristocratic patterns (eg
> the attacks on Robert II of France and generally throughout the 11th cn),
> can we characterize when and how the shift occurs, and can it go both ways?
>
> rlandes
>
>
>
tTe fact is that th HB is a limited ((in scope, influence and
authority) case. The dominant canon law tradition on the continent
universally stressed the 7 degree prohibition long before the 11th cent.
so there is no need to postulate or characterize any "shift" because none
took place. Duby's expertese in canon law is rather limited and I, for
one, have never found the 2 models theory particularly convincing.
Michael F. Hynes
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