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Papacy and Law in the Gregorian Revolution: The Canonistic Work of Anselm of Lucca. By Kathleen G. Gushing. [Oxford Historical Monographs.] (New York: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press. 1998. Pp. xii, 246. $69.00.)
Law was an important tool for the people who strove to reform the Church in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The need for law made this a period when many reform-minded churchmen worked on discovering, collecting, and interpreting law, leading eventually to the creation of law schools and a new legal system, the ius commune. One such man was Anselm, bishop of Lucca, who in the 1080's compiled an influential collection of canon law as well as a pro-papal polemical treatise. His collection is often described as a typical reform collection, "strictly Gregorian" in orientation. Without challenging...