Folia Theologica et Canonica 1. 23/15 (2012)

IUS CANONICUM - Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi, Biblical Texts and Medieval Ecclesiastical Discipline up to the Decretum Gratiani

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SZABOLCS ANZELM SZUROMI, O.PRAEM.

III. From the Gregorian Reform up to the Decretum Gratiani

There is a fundamental ecclesiastical intention aimed at improving the basic theological knowledge of the clergy, and even of the bishops, especially at the turning of the 10th and 11th centuries. However, among the particular aims of the Gregorian Reform we find not only the doctrinal and disciplinary renovation of the Church, but a determination to strengthen the written culture and a systematization of the various disciplines which were being tought in the cathedral schools and later at the universities.

We can recognize a certain type of reform in the 11th century which took place at the cathedral chapter of Lucca.32 Bishops John II (1023-1056), Anselm I (1057-1061), and Anselm II (1073-1086) were solicitous to extend this reform to the community life of canons, the pastoral field of ‘cura animarum’, the theological and religious education of clerics and laymen. Anselm of Lucca intended not only to organize the canonical life, but also to teach the discipline of Church at the cathedral.33 He wrote also some commentary on Biblical topics: Commentarium in Psalmos, and Expositio in Lamentationes Jeremiae, which show his profound knowledge of the Holy Scripture.34 Anselm's main work is the best Gregorian canon law collection of the 1 Th century, i.e. the Collectio Canonum Anse Imi Lucensis (1081-1083). The ecclesiological concept of the Gregorian Reform was formed basicly by influence of the writtings of Pope Gregory the Great. It is testified well by those 143 canons which took place in Anselm’s Collection (recension ‘A’) as the largest corpus of canons.35 Through these canons the allegorical Biblical interpretation became significant for the ecclesiological arguments in this canonical collection. There are only three Biblical texts inserted into his work as independent canons: Ans. 2. 1 ; Ans. 2. 69; and Ans. 7. 123. The first one is the chapter of the Deuteronomy about Judges (Dt 17:8-13) which had been already used by the 74 title digest* The second Biblical quotation is a fragment of the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 5: 4-6). Both canons belong to the material of Book 2, under the title “De libertate appellationis”. The third Biblical text took place in Book 7. This book entitled in BAV Vat. lat. 1364 “De vita et ordinatione presbyterorum“, and the particular canon

32 kittel> E., Der Kampf um die Reform des Domkapitels in Lucca im 11. Jahrhundert, in Fest- schrfift Albert Brackmann, Weimar 1931. 189-236.

33 Guidi, P., Archivio Archivecovile di Lucca, in Archivio Storico Italiano 7 (1927) 104-142; cf. Szuromi, Sz. A., Anselm of Lucca as a Canonist. Critical summary on importance of the Collectio Anselmi Lucensis, in Pinto, V. E. (ed.), Iudex et Magister. Miscelánea en honor al Pbro. Nelson C. Dellaferrera, I. Buenos Aires 2008. 57-70.

34 Motivi dell’ecclesiologia di Anselmo di Lucca in margine a un sermone inedito, in Bulletino dell’istituto storico italiano per il medioevo e archivio Muratoriano 11 (1965) 45-104.

35 Cf. Szuromi, Sz.A., Die patristische Wurzel der bischöflichen Kirchendisziplin in der “Collectio Anselmi Lucensis, in Rivista Internazionale di diritto comune 12 (2001) 249-264.