Papacy and Law in the Gregorian Revolution: The Canonistic Work of Anselm of Lucca by Kathleen G. Cushing (review)

312BOOK REVIEWS field in ways which produce satisfying and iUuminating answers to her set ofpostulates about the dramatic expansion of monasticism in post-ConquestYorkshire. JoanWardrop Curtin University ofTechnology Perth, Western Australia Papacy and Law in the Gregorian Revolution: The Canonistic Work ofAnselm ofLucca. By Kathleen G. Cushing. [Oxford Historical Monographs.] (New York: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press. 1998. Pp. xii, 246. $69.00.) Law was an important tool for the people who strove to reform the Church in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The need for law made this a period when many reform-minded churchmen worked on discovering, collecting, and interpreting law, leading eventually to the creation of law schools and a new legal system, the ius commune. One such man was Anselm, bishop of Lucca, who in the 1080's compiled an influential collection of canon law as well as a pro-papal polemical treatise. His collection is often described as a typical "reform collection," "strictly Gregorian" in orientation. Without challenging this standard characterization, Kathleen Cushing explores Anselm's project in greater depth than has been done previously. Unfortunately, much of the book is hard to read, even for the specialist. The core of this book is chapters 3 and 4, where Cushing analyzes Anselm's ecclesiology and his doctrine of coercion. In Anselm's vision of the ideal church, the primacy of the Roman see was unquestioned and even brought with it a papal obligation to defend the Church and correct errors, in other words an obligation to reform.When the pope encountered violent opposition, the Church had the right to resort to coercion, and when the normal secular defender of the Church, the emperor, was the enemy (as was the case when Anselm wrote in the 1080's), the Church could exercise the right of coercion directly. In much of this, the doctrines in Anselm's collection are similar to the ideas of Pope Gregory VTI, and Cushing finds further similarities when studying Gregory's dictatus pape. Most of the doctrines expressed here can also be found in Anselm's collection; most but not all—some are, in fact, contradicted. This is an important result throwing new light on a much debated issue. The least successful part of the book is chapter 2, where Cushing explores Anselm's ideas by studying the alterations that he made in the texts which he quoted in his canonical collection. Her conclusions (p. 102) are not supported by the evidence she cites. Even though Anselm sometimes simplified the syntax of his source or emphasized a specific aspect of a text by means of a rubric, he was clearly not given to "dramatic alteration" (p. 77) changing also the meaning BOOK REVIEWS313 of the texts. Anselm had no need for distorting his texts, since the canonical tradition was so rich that he easily found texts suitable for his purpose. Friedrich Thaner's incomplete edition (1906-1915) of Anselm's collection omits books 12 and 13, which are important for many of Cushing's arguments. In Appendix 2, she provides a calendar (including inscriptions, rubrics, incipits, and explicits) of the texts contained in these last two books of Anselm's work. This listing will be very useful for continued research. Also useful for research and teaching is Cushing's excellent introduction, in which she outlines the use of law in the papal reform movement up to Anselm of Lucca. Anders Winroth Yale University Die Prüfeninger Vita Bischof Ottos I. von Bamberg nach der Fassung des Großen Österreichischen Legendars. Edited by Jürgen Petersohn. [Monumenta Germaniae Histórica: Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi, 71.] (Hanover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung. 1999. Pp. viii, 174.) Bishop Otto I of Bamberg (1 102-1139) was one of the major figures in the German Church in the first half of the twelfth century. An ardent reformer who founded or renewed eighteen monasteries, Otto is best known as the Apostle to the Pomeranians. Immediately after Otto's death, someone in Bamberg recorded Otto's foundations, construction of castles, and property acquisitions in the Relatio depiis operibus Ottonis episcopi Bambergensis. Between 1140 and 1146 ? monk of Prufening, a Benedictine house of the Hirsau observance that Otto...