Crime or Sin? Rethinking Ideas of Wrongdoing in Medieval Europe
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Iuris Canonici Medii Aevi Consociatio (ICMAC), the International Society of Medieval Canon Law
Organizer Name
Kathleen G. Cushing
Organizer Affiliation
Univ. of Keele
Presider Name
Joseph Goering
Presider Affiliation
Univ. of Toronto
Paper Title 1
"Donec tolleratur": The Sinful Exercise of Unlawful Authority: Civil and Canon Law Approaches
Presenter 1 Name
Guido Rossi Amari
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Univ. of Edinburgh
Paper Title 2
Understanding Crimes and Sins: Distinctions in Practice at the Diocesan Criminal Court at Carpentras, 1487 and 1488
Presenter 2 Name
Elizabeth L. Hardman
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Bronx Community College, CUNY
Start Date
10-5-2014 1:30 PM
Session Location
Valley II Garneau Lounge
Description
Medieval lawyers, theologians and churchmen used a range of terms to describe acts of wrongdoing: culpa (fault), reatus (liability), peccata (sin), and crimen (crime), all of whose connotations and meanings –as well as the nature of their compensation- were far from being as clear-cut as their English translations might suggest. Recent work has explored fundamental shifts in ideas of wrongfulness in light of the distinction of punishable acts (crimen) from other forms of human misconduct (peccata, etc.) which it has been argued became the province of theologians rather than lawyers. Yet the extent to which a shift in the meaning, let alone application, of crime and its separation from sin was so clear cut remains contested. This session invites papers that address ideas of and boundaries between crime, sin and wrongdoing as well as the nature of the development of the Western legal tradition and the history of penance and criminalization.
Kathleen Cushing
Crime or Sin? Rethinking Ideas of Wrongdoing in Medieval Europe
Valley II Garneau Lounge
Medieval lawyers, theologians and churchmen used a range of terms to describe acts of wrongdoing: culpa (fault), reatus (liability), peccata (sin), and crimen (crime), all of whose connotations and meanings –as well as the nature of their compensation- were far from being as clear-cut as their English translations might suggest. Recent work has explored fundamental shifts in ideas of wrongfulness in light of the distinction of punishable acts (crimen) from other forms of human misconduct (peccata, etc.) which it has been argued became the province of theologians rather than lawyers. Yet the extent to which a shift in the meaning, let alone application, of crime and its separation from sin was so clear cut remains contested. This session invites papers that address ideas of and boundaries between crime, sin and wrongdoing as well as the nature of the development of the Western legal tradition and the history of penance and criminalization.
Kathleen Cushing