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Internet Medieval Sourcebook

Medieval Legal History

Editor: Paul Halsall

The Internet Medieval Sourcebook is located at the
Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies.


Guide to Contents

This section of the Internet Medieval Sourcebook collects the various online texts related to the history of law.

  • Main Page will take you back to Sourcebook main page.
  • Full Texts  will take you to the index of full text medieval sources.
  • Saint's Lives will take you to the page on hagiography.
Medieval Legal History
  • Ancient Legal Texts
    A link to the page of the Ancient History Sourcebook which provides texts of ancient Near Eastern, Greek, and Early Roman legal sources.
  • General Legal History
  • Roman Law
    • Decrees of Roman Emperors
    • Law Codes
    • Marriage Law
    • Legal Commentators
    • Byzantine Law
    • Slavic Law
    • Canon Law
      • General
      • Ecumenical and General Church Councils
      • Other Canon Law Texts
        • Full Texts
        • Specific Canons
        • Papal Decrees
      • The Rebirth of Canon Law Studies: 11th Century On
      • Later Medieval Canon Law
    • Inquisitorial Methods
    • Monastic Rules
    • Theory of Law
  • Germanic Law
    • Early Law Codes
    • Carolingian Law
    • "Feudal" Law
  • European Laws and Law Codes: Post 950
    • Laws of Western "Holy Roman" Emperors
    • Laws of Italian States
    • Laws of Iberian States
    • Laws of France
  • English Law
    • General
    • Anglo-Saxon Law
    • Early Norman Law
    • Origins of Common Law: 12th Century
    • Common Law: 13th Century
    • English Law: After Edward I
    • Various Select Pleas
    • Various Cases
  • Jewish Law
  • Islamic Law
  • Modern Western Law
    • Commentaries
    • International Law
    • Constitutional Law

General Legal History

Roman Law

Decrees of Roman Emperors

Law Codes

  • The Codex Theodosianus [The Theodosian Code], 438
  • The Corpus Iuris Civilis [Code of Civil Law], 529-533 CE
Canon Law

--General

--Ecumenical and General Church Councils

NOTE: The texts here are public domain English translations from the Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers series, for the first seven ecumenical councils, and from H.J. Schroeder, Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils, (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1937) [US Copyright expired - confirmed by TAN books, current owner of B. Herder's list]. These are not necessarily the best available sources for the various council texts, although they are quite serviceable, and the notes in the NPNF series are very useful. More recent editions and translations should be consulted for serious academic publication purposes. I have prepared a Guide to Documentary Sources for Catholic Teaching which lists, in some detail, what I take to be the current standard editions.  See also Ecumenical Councils - a useful, if denominationally partisan, article from the Catholic Encyclopedia. 

There are also online etexts of council decrees from Norman Tanner, ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, (London: Sheed and Ward; Washington. D.C: Georgetown University Press. 1990). I have made these off-site links (at http://www.ewtn.com)   available. EWTN is a conservative Catholic web site, but it does have a lot of files [over 9000].
  1. Council of Nicaea I : 325 A.D., with Catholic Encyclopedia article 
  2. Council of Constantinople I : 381 A.D.  
  3. Council of Ephesus : 431 A.D.  
  4. Council of Chalcedon : 451 A.D.  and Dogmatic Definition of Council of Chalcedon 451 A.D.
  5. Council of Constantinople II : 553 AD  
  6. Council of Constantinople III : 680-681 A.D.  
  7. Council of Nicaea II : 787 A.D. ,  - with Catholic Encylopedia article 
    Cf. Nicea II 753 (Iconcolast Synod)
  8. Council of Constantinople IV : 869-870 A.D. [At Papal Encyclicals]
  9. Lateran Council I : 1123 A.D. 
  10. Lateran Council II : 1139 A.D. 
  11. Lateran Council III : 1179 A.D. 
  12. Lateran Council IV : 1215 A.D. 
  13. Council of Lyons 1 : 1245 A.D. [At Papal Encyclicals]
  14. Council of Lyons 2 : 1274 A.D. [At Papal Encyclicals]
  15. Council of Vienne : 1311-12 A.D. 
  16. Council of Constance 1414-18 A.D.  
  17. Council of Basel-Ferrara-Florence : 1431-1435 A.D.  See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Council of Basel
  18. Lateran Council V : 1512-17 A.D.  See also Catholic Encyclopedia: Fifth Lateran Council
  19. Council of Trent : 1545-63 A.D. [at Hanover College - this is public domain].
  20. Vatican Council I : 1869 AD  
  21. Vatican Council II: Index 
--Other Canon Law Texts --The Rebirth of Canon Law Studies: 11th Century On --Later Medieval Canon Law Inquisitorial Methods


Monastic Rules

--Eastern

--Western Theory of Law

Germanic Law

Early Law Codes

Carolingian Law "Feudal" Law European Laws & Law Codes: Post 950

Unlike England, which developed its insular common law tradition rather early, the legislative activity of the high medieval states of continental western Europe was heavily influenced by the revival in the study of Roman law. Nevertheless, customary legal traditions continued to play an important role. 

English Law

General

  • WEB English Legal History Materials [Robert Palmer, WasAt Univ. Houston, Still useful as on Internet Archive]
  • WEB Early English Laws [Internte Archive backup here]
    Early English Laws is a project to publish online and in print new editions and translations of all English legal codes, edicts, and treatises produced up to the time of Magna Carta 1215.
  • Compare WEB The Law of Hywel
    Aattributed to king Hywel ap Cadell (Hywel the Good), d. 950 it prevailed in Wales until 1536.
Anglo-Saxon Law Early Norman Law Origins of Common Law: 12th Century Common Law: 13th Century English Law: After Edward I Various Select PleasThese documents illustrate the development of the English legal system. Various Cases Jewish Law Islamic Law

Modern Western Law

Commentaries

  • Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws, Translated by Thomas Nugent, revised by J. V. Prichard, 1914 ed., full text [Internet Archive]
  • Blackstone's Commentaries, with notes by St. George Tucker, 1803, full text
International Law Constitutional Law

© This text is copyright. The specific electronic form, and any notes and questions are copyright. Permission is granted to copy the text, and to print out copies for personal and educational use. No permission is granted for commercial use. If any copyright has been infringed, this was unintentional. The possibility of a site such as this, as with other collections of electronic texts, depends on the large availability of public domain material from texts translated before 1927. [In the US, all texts issued before 1927 are now in the public domain. Texts published before 1964 may be in the public domain if copyright was not renewed after 28 years. This site seeks to abide by US copyright law: the copyright status of texts here outside the US may be different.] Efforts have been made to ascertain the copyright status of all texts here, although, occasionally, this has not been possible where older or non-US publishers seem to have ceased existence, or where texts were collected and added in the early years of the Internet. The recently-translated texts here are copyright to the translators indicated in each document. These translators have in every case given permission for non-commercial reproduction. No representation is made about the copyright status of texts linked off-site. This site is intended for educational use. Notification of copyright infringement will result in the immediate removal of a text until its status is resolved.


NOTE: The date of inception of the Internet Medieval Sourcebook was 1/20/1996. Links to files at other site are indicated by [At <some indication of the site name or location>]. No indication means that the text file is local. WEB indicates a link to one of small number of high quality web sites which provide either more texts or an especially valuable overview.

The Internet Medieval Sourcebook is part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project. The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the History Department of  Fordham University, New York. The Internet Medieval Sourcebook, and other medieval components of the project, are located at the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies.The IHSP recognizes the contribution of Fordham University, the Fordham University History Department, and the Fordham Center for Medieval Studies in providing web space and server support for the project. The IHSP is a project independent of Fordham University.   Although the IHSP seeks to follow all applicable copyright law, Fordham University is not the institutional owner, and is not liable as the result of any legal action.

© Site Concept and Design: Paul Halsall created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 11 March 2024 [CV]