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Gratian the theologian . By John C. Wei . (Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law, 13.) Pp. xvii + 355 incl. 6 tables. Washington, DC : The Catholic University of America Press , 2016. $65. 978 0 8132 2803 7
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This monograph both summarises and contributes to recent scholarship on the life and work of Gratian, compiler of the Concordia discordantium canonum (c. 1140), the work long known to canonists simply as the Decretum. It was this text with which students began their study of the canon law in the European schools. Fifty years ago there was a widely accepted view of Gratian's place in history. Probably a Camaldolese monk and also a teacher in Bologna, his work rendered all prior canonical collections obsolete. A lawyer in spirit if not in fact, he set the administration of the Church's law on a path separate from the one taken by theologians. These pioneering steps have justified Gratian's reputation as 'Father of the Canon Law', earning a place for him in Dante's Paradiso (Canto x.103-5).
Within these past fifty years, much of this account has been challenged. In 1979 John Noonan demonstrated that most of the received biographical...