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

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

BIBLICAL TEXTS AND MEDIEVAL ECCLESIASTICAL DISCIPLINE...

141

damental characteristics of canonical material - independent of the time it came into being - is its sacramentality.7

The canonical norms of the Church therefore were based on the disciplinary and doctrinal teaching of the Holy Scripture from the Apostolic Age. By this reason, the Biblical texts, references, interpretations received an important place in the canonical collections from the earliest summaries of the ecclesiastical disciplines8 as religious or moral fundamental rules of the Church.9 The Bible was used by the canonists as a canonical source in two basic senses: a) the Bible itself; b) quotations from the Bible by distinguished authors (e.g., patristic writers, popes). The most significant authors among them are Origen, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine; St. Leo the Great and St. Gregory the Great.10 Because the authority of Pope Gregory the Great and the influence of his works, their exegetical method, which is an allegorical interpretation, was wide-spread in the Medieval West as a most accepted exegetical form. After the time of the pseudo-epigrafies11, the canonical collections were supplemented with significant number of Biblical texts during the time of the Early Middle Ages (especially 6,h - 8th centuries). These quotations cited mostly the Old Testament. The Insular sources were focusing on the moral and canonical customs, therefore many Biblical and patristic fragments took place in the collections.12 The Insular collections, especially the libri paenitentiales prefered the disciplinary texts of the Old Testament as source of the current canonical discipline.13 Nevertheless, the classificaton of sins by St. John’s First Letter (1 Jn 5:16) or the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 12:31) also made influence on the penitencial discipline.

7 In detailed i.e. Szuromi, Sz. A., Authority and sacramentality in the Catholic Church (A Canonical-Theological Schema), in Arrieta, J. I. (a cura di), Jus divinum (XIII Congresso Inter- nazionale di Diritto Canonico, 17-21 settembre 2008, Venezia), Venezia 2010. 1143-1163, especially 1143-1145.

8 de Churruca, J., La formation des normes dans les letters canoniques des pères cappadociens, in Constable, G. - Rouche, M. (dir.), Auctoritas. Mélanges offerts à Olivier Guillot (Cultures et civilisation médiévales), Paris 2006. 67-96, especially 74-76.

9 Gaudemet, J., Les sources du droit de l'Eglise en occident du IT au VIT siècle (Initiations au christianisme ancien), Paris 1985. 15-16.

10 Fransen, G., Sources et littérature du droit canonique classique, in Landau, P. - Mueller, J. (ed.) Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, Munich 13-18 July 1992 (Monumenta Iuris Canonici C/10), Città del Vaticano 1997. 3-19. Gaudemet, J., Les sources du Décret de Gratien, in Revue de Droit Canonique 48 (1998) 247-261. Landau, P., Patristische Texte in den beiden Rezensionen des Decretum Gratianus, in Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 23 (1999) 77-84. Szuromi, Sz.A., Patristic texts in the Collectio Canonum Anselmi Lucensis (recension ‘A ') and their correspondence with the Decretum Gratiani, in Folia Canonica 1 (2004) 71-108, especially 79-88.

11 Erdő, P., Die Quellen des Kirchenrechts. Eine geschichtliche Einführung (Adnotationes in lus Canonicum 23), Frankfurt am Main 2002. 11-26.

12 Cf. Cordoliani, A., Le texte de la Bible en Irelande du V" au IX‘ siècles, in Revue Biblique 57 (1950) 5-39.

13 Le Bras, G., Pénitentiels, in Dictionaire de théologie catholique, XII. Paris 1933. 1160-1179.