Making laws for a Christian society. The Hibernensis and the beginnings of church law in Ireland and Britain by Roy Flechner (review)

Abstract

Making laws for a Christian society presents a series of essays which provide some contextualisation and background to the author’s recent edition of the Collectio canonum Hibernensis (CCH) (Flechner 2019a & 2019b). The Collectio is not an easy text to get to grips with and so any help is welcome. However, despite the very general title, the volume is essentially ‘concerned with texts, transmission, and sources’ (8), and so much remains to be said about this text. Even so, this is a useful collection, narrow though its focus is. After a brief Introduction to canon law collections in the post-Roman Latin West (1–9), seven chapters consider CCH from different perspectives and contexts. Chapter 1 (10–23) presents some of the textual basics: the A and B recensions and the primary manuscript sources from which a text can be constituted, and the basic details of place of compilation, authorship, and date. Chapter 2 (24–46) steps back and sets the text(s) into the context of the development of church law and canonical collections before 1000. Chapter 3 (47–67) then focuses on the tradition of ecclesiastical law in Britain and Ireland considering the relationship between it and the other insular texts, such as penitentials and canon law. Chapter 4 (68–88) tightens the focus on Ireland itself; in particular, it examines the connections between ecclesiastical law and vernacular Irish law. Chapter 5 (89–110) turns to the sources of CCH and draws attention to the