Link to the online meeting: https://bit.ly/legalhistory2-3
For more information, please visit the website: https://ias.amu.edu.pl/ias-invited-lecture-series-in-legal-history-2/
Abstract
In this conference I would like to highlight the “recycling” of Roman law in theological writings, especially in the early modern period (16-17th centuries). Eager to provide answers to concrete cases of conscience in the field of private law, commercial law and public law, moral theologians, also known as the “scholastics”, heavily drew on Justinian’s legal texts, trying to reconcile them with larger principles derived from ancient and medieval virtue ethics. I will argue that, as a result, an extraordinarily fruitful, “theological use of the Pandects” (Usus theologicus pandectarum) emerged. To a certain extent, it can be seen as an integral part of the wider contemporary phenomenon of re-appropriation of Justinian’s Corpus iuris civilis (Usus modernus pandectarum). Incidentally, many of the jurists associated with the Usus modernus pandectarum were quite familiar with the interpretation of Roman legal texts in the writings of early modern Roman-Catholic theologians. As will be shown, this should not come as a surprise, especially considering the sophistication of theologians’ exegesis of Roman legal texts.