Internet History Sourcebooks: Medieval Sourcebook

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

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.

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.

John Stuart Mill: Representative Government, 1861, full text [Project Gutenberg]

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© 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 15 November 2024 [CV]