Stephan Kuttner

Anglo-Norman Canonists of the Twelfth Century: An Introductory Study

Among the various aspects of the operation of canon law in medieval England, the history of the Anglo-Norman school of canonists which flourished in the late twelfth and the early thirteenth centuries remains largely unexplored. Modern historians have frequently emphasized, to be sure, the eager interest which English churchmen of the twelfth century took in problems and issues of canon law; and it can now be considered an established fact that the English Church throughout this period was well abreast of the developments which everywhere resulted from the growing centralization of ecclesiastical procedure, from the work of Gratian and his school, and from the ever-increasing number of authoritative responses and appellate decisions rendered by the popes in their decretal letters. The importance of the system of delegate jurisdiction in the cases referred back by Rome to the country of origin has been noted, and so has the conspicuous number of twelfth-century English collections of decretals, which testifies to a particular zeal and tradition, among Anglo-Norman canonists, in supplementing Gratians work by records of the new papal law. The problem, also, of the influence exercised by Roman and canon law on the early development of the Common Law is being discussed with growing interest among students of English legal and constitutional history.

Bertram of Metz

In 1875, Gustav Haenel described a number of twelfth-century commentaries and glosses on the title De regulis iuris of the Digest, some of them being an-notations of Bulgarus’ celebrated apparatus and others, independent writings. Among the latter, a lemmatic commentary contained in a MS then owned by himself — now Leipzig, Univ. MS Haen. 12, fol. 25ff. — is of especial interest: as Haenel showed, the commentator may have had some ecclesiastical background and evidently was connected with Cologne or Mainz. It therefore comes as a pleasant confirmation of Haenels cautious deductions that the author can be identified as Master Bertram, Bishop of Metz ( sed. 1180–1212), and a member of the circle of Gerard Pucelle, the English master whose importance for the short-lived school of Cologne has been recently discussed.

An Interim Checklist of Manuscripts (III)

As in previous Bulletins, bibliographical references are limited (1) to the first notice given of a manuscript not recorded in the Repertorium , and (2) to significant corrections or amplifications concerning previously known and new manuscripts (such references being preceded by ‘cf.’). Details of descriptions given in the Repertorium are not repeated, and new manuscripts are marked by the symbol *.