Legista sine canonibus parum valet, canonista sine legibus nihil

Abstract

Legista sine canonibus parum valet, canonista sine legibus nihil. Students of canon law learn that maxim early on in their studies. No modern scholar has ever doubted that Roman law was crucial for the development and understanding of medieval canon law. At the dawn of jurisprudence in the twelfth century, however, the Church’s attitude towards Roman law in particular and secular law in general was not always positive. Pope Innocent II thought the study of law was inappropriate for the religious clergy, monks, and canons regular, and he promulgated Prava autem consuetudo at the Second Lateran Council in 1123 in which he forbade the religious to study law. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux famously complained to Pope Eugenius III about the pernicious effect of law on the papal curia. Nevertheless, the papal curia understood the importance of Roman jurisprudence for canon law. Pope Lucius III (1181-1185) recognized the close relationship of the two laws at the end of the twelfth century and quoted a famous text of