Canon Law and the Letters of Ivo of Chartres »

Ivo of Chartres was one of the most learned scholars of his time, a powerful bishop and a major figure in the so-called Investiture Contest. Christof Rolker here offers a major new study of Ivo, his works and the role he played in the intellectual, religious and political culture of medieval Europe around c. 1100 AD. Comparing Ivo's extensive correspondence to the contemporary canon law collections attributed to him, Dr Rolker provides a new interpretation of their authorship. Contrary to current assumptions, he reveals that Ivo did not compile the Panormia as he shows that its compiler worked in a distinct mental framework from Ivo. These findings call for a reassessment of the relationship between Church Reform and scholasticism and shed new light on Ivo as both a scholar and bishop.

List of abbreviations vii

Note on the citation of manuscripts xiii

1 IVO of Chartres - 'Life and Letters'? 1

'Scripsit ad diversos amicos utiles valde epistolas': a contemporary view 1

Ivo as abbot and bishop 5

The changing identity of Ivo 24

The 'Ivonian' collections reconsidered 47

2 Canon law before IVO 50

Canon law in northern France to the early eleventh century 50

The impact of Burchard of Worms 60

The Collection in seventy-four titles and its derivatives 81

Summary: the demand for legal texts 85

3 Collections known to or compiled by IVO 89

Ivo's education 89

The Collectio Britannica 92

Tripartita A and its sources 100

Ivo's magnum opus: the Decretum 107

The Prologus and its sources 121

The Panormia and its sources 123

4 The Canon Law in IVO's Correspondence 127

The letter collection and its formal sources 127

Tripartita A 135

The Decretum - main source of the letters 137

Tripartita B 145

The Panormia 148

Other sources 152

Conclusions 160

5 Hierarchies of Authority: Ivo's Views On Divine Law and the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 163

Introduction 163

Ivo's method of 'mercy and justice' 165

Sacramental canon law 180

Ecclesiastical hierarchy 193

Conclusions 208

6 The Laws Of Marriage: 'Quod Et Natura Disposuit, Et Lex Tam Ecclesiastica Quam Mundana Firmavit' 211

Ivo's view on marriage 211

King Philip's marriage affair 230

Summary 243

7 IVO'S Decretum and the Panormia: Character, Reception, Authorship 248

Ivo's Decretum and the Panormia compared 248

The reception of the Decretum in the twelfth century 256

The Panormia: authorship, date and place of origin 265

8 IVO'S Pastoral Canon Law and his Place in Legal History 290

Appendix: A concordance table for the quotations in Ivo's letters 303

Bibliography 339

Index to single letters of Ivo of Chartres 373

Manuscript index 376

General index 380