Great Christian Jurists in French History ed. by Olivier Deschamps and Rafael Domingo, and: Great Christian Jurists in English History ed. by Mark Hill and Richard H. Helmholz (review)

Both of these volumes belong to the series Cambridge Studies in Law and Christianity and the sub-series Great Christian Jurists. In the latter, they belong with Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium, ed. Philip L. Reynolds and Great Christian Jurists in Spanish History, edited by Rafael Domingo and Javier Martínez-Torrón. In both countries treated, the versions of Christianity and legal systems in which jurists were involved differed.

Great Christian Jurists in French History covers the lives and thought of twenty-seven jurists, many versed in canon or Roman law, history of law, philosophy of law, or sociology of law. Several taught; but others practiced, serving as judges or as administrators. Each sketch concludes with Recommended Reading.

The collection begins with three canonists. Ivo of Chartres (Christof Rolker) became a bishop toward the end of the Gregorian Reform. He was active in both ecclesiastical and lay politics. Ivo was well versed in theology, especially thought on the sacraments. Ivo's name is associated with three canonistic collections: Decretum, Tripartita, and Panormia. The last mentioned, least likely to be Ivo's, diffused the methodological preface of the Decretum, helping systematize a heritage of often conflicting texts. Stephen of Tournai (Kenneth Pennington) was a glossator of Gratian's Decretum. Stephen's Summa displays both acumen and knowledge of legal processes. As Pennington notes, Schulte's edition of Stephen's text is badly flawed. However, Peter Landau's argument that the commentary on De consecratione was written by another author is not treated. Guillaume Durant (Orazio Condorelli) was well versed in procedural matters, composing the widely-circulated Speculum iudiciale. This text earned its author the nickname the Speculator. Durant, a bishop, composed an extensive interpretation of the mass.

The next two articles address medieval Roman law, taught at Orléans after Gregory IX forbade its teaching in Paris. Jacques de Revigny (Paul J. Du Plessis) was a pioneer of this Ultramontane school. However, the focus is on teaching methodology, with minimal attention to the role of Christianity in the creative interpretation of Roman texts. Closer to the theme of the volume is Pierre de Belleperche (Yves Mausen). Pierre served both church and crown. His service to Philip IV of France was is redolent of Realpolitik that it shows how far a jurist could depart from the Christian thinking of his day.

With Charles Dumoulin (Wim Decock) we come to Reformation rupture of Western Christendom. Dumoulin was born and died a Roman Catholic. However, outspoken promotion of his ideas led him to be at times Lutheran or Reformed. His Catholicism, when he returned to it, was Gallican and anti-papal, rejecting the Council of Trent. Dumoulin preferred custom and the 'old canons' of the primitive church to newer laws. Jean Calvin (John Witte Jr.) was Dumoulin's fellow student in law, However, he settled in Geneva as a Protestant pastor, polemicist and legislator. Calvin's ordinances for Geneva used civil power to restrain sin and move sinners to seek grace. Calvin promoted rights and liberty derived from natural law, a line of thought too easily forgotten in the negative image of Calvin's Geneva as a theocracy.

The Renaissance is crucial to Xavier Prévost's account of Jacques Cujas. Cujas sought to uncover law in its historical context. He was an incisive commentator but not a systematizer. Despite some resemblances of his thought to that of the Huguenots, Cujas never broke with Catholicism; and he avoided choosing sides in France's religious conflicts.

François Hotman (Mathias Schmoeckel) was a Calvinist. He also preferred customary law to Romanist theories...