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9781108460866

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'The history of the papacy in the early Middle Ages is plagued with conflicting scholarly interpretations of its role, importance, and doctrines. David d'Avray has written a masterfully lucid analysis of the first papal letters, papal authority and institutions, and the problems the bishops of Rome faced as they strove to create a universal set of norms for the church.' Kenneth Pennington, Catholic University of America 'As he did for sermons, David d'Avray combines meticulous case studies and a compelling narrative to explain the responsive nature of canon law and collapse distinctions between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Both late antique and high medieval papal decretals were issued and interpreted in response to 'social complexities and uncertainties.' The sheer quantity and complexity of papal decretals in canon law collections and the specialist glosses these required meant that canon law became dominated by Rome rather than local experts, forever determining the nature of canon law in the West.' Jessalynn Bird, Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN 'If you think you know what a book about papal decretals is going to be like, think again. This is not a standard accounting of popes and recipients, textual reception, and early medieval or later canonical collections … It is difficult to express how interesting a book d'Avray has written. He brings new insights and frameworks to the topic of papal decretals, pushes historians to think well beyond their typical chronological limits, and convincingly demonstrates that careful and even tedious textual and manuscript research can profitably be combined with larger social analyses …' Atria A. Larson, The Medieval Review 'd'Avray's thesis of the two decretal ages is convincing, and highly stimulating for the interpretation and evaluation of papal letters. By confronting the two phases, furthermore, the author calls into question familiar period boundaries, which assign the two decretal ages to different fields of research. How fruitful it can be to cross period boundaries, as in this case, is demonstrated by the book.' Cornelia Scherer, H-Soz-Kult '… an extremely stimulating book, which brings out in a granular and penetrating way the significance of papal decretals for the evolution of law in general, and also sets them in their historical context with the help of sociological models...' Lotte Kéry, Historische Zeitschrift

Author Information

D. L. d'Avray is Professor Emeritus of History at University College London. He has published widely on medieval preaching, death and kingship, marriage, rationalities, and the papacy. His previous publications include the companion volume of texts, Papal Jurisprudence c. 400: Sources of the Canon Law Tradition (Cambridge, 2019); Papacy, Monarchy and Marriage, 860–1600 (Cambridge, 2015); and Dissolving Royal Marriages: A Documentary History, 860–1600 (Cambridge, 2014). He has been Fellow of the British Academy since 2005 and Corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America since 2016.

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