Scandalum in the Early Bolognese Decretistic and in Papal Decretals (ca. 1140-1234)

The wish to avoid scandala or to put an end to scandalous
situations has been and remains a continuous concern of canonists and
Church authorities, at least as of the thirteenth century. As of Raymond
of Penafort's Summa de paenitentia (late 1220s - early 1230s), scandalum
was dealt with separately in canonical dictionaries. Legal historical
research on the earlier use of the term within canon law, is however
relatively scarce. Inspired by the linguistic-philosophical approach of
the Begriffsgeschichte, this book offers a conceptual-historical
analysis of the use of scandalum by early Bolognese decretists (ca.
1140 - ca. 1180) and in papal decretals from Alexander III (1159) until
the promulgation of the Liber Extra by Gregory IX in 1234.For
Gratian and the earliest generation of decretists (Paucapalea and
Rolandus), scandalum was a quite insignificant notion. Gradually,
with Rufinus, however, the concept gained importance, both quantitatively
and qualitatively. Stephen of Tournai pointed at the horrible consequences
of a scandalum for the salvation of the souls. Simon of Bisignano
stressed, for instance, the opposition between scandalum and peace.
Even though non of the twelfth- and early thirteenth-century sources had
yet developed a consistent theory on scandalum and its legal
consequences, the analysis of papal decretals shows how scandalum
became a more popular concept, especially in the field of disciplinary and
penal canon law. Some evidence even suggests an instrumentalism of the
term by the end of the twelfth century. At the same time, increasingly
popes, especially Innocent III (1198-1216), were aware of the ambivalent
nature of the concept.Apart from scandalum's polysemy, the
legal-political use of the term was striking: repression, reconciliation
and cover-up policies could all be justified in order to avoid or to put
an end to scandala, and, thus, to save one's soul and to protect
the Church. This relatively open and flexible notion played an important
part in the Church's peace policy as well. This study argues that scandalum
can be described as 'indignation as a source of conflicts'.