The African Origins of Western Canon Law. An Investigation into the Corpus canonum Africano-Romanum

Project Information

AFRICANON

Grant agreement ID: 101108598

DOI

10.3030/101108598

Project closed

EC signature date 2 May 2023

Start date 1 September 2023

End date 31 August 2025

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 199 440,96

Coordinated by

OESTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AFRICANON (The African Origins of Western Canon Law. An Investigation into the Corpus canonum Africano-Romanum)

Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The church of late antique North Africa exerted a lasting influence on the subsequent development of canon law in the Latin Middle Ages. Even though, from a European perspective, Northern Africa came to be regarded as a somewhat peripheral region at the latest after the Islamic conquest, this did not diminish the enduring significance attributed to the achievements of Late Roman Africa. Medieval scholars held Africa in high esteem not only for its theological writings – one need only think of Augustine, Cyprian, and of Tertullian – but also for its considerable contribution to canon law. The canons issued by synods of African bishops were considered authoritative texts and were widely received in medieval canonical collections.
Already in term of quantity, their impact is remarkable: in the database “Clavis canonum – Selected Canon Law Collections”, which catalogues canon law collections from the sixth to the thirteenth century, 162 pre-Gratian collections are currently recorded. Of these, no fewer than 115 cite conciliar canons originating in late antique North Africa. These conciliar decrees address a wide range of subjects – by no means limited to what we would today call “ecclesiastical” matters: including the discipline of clergy and laity, marriage, slavery, liturgy, clerical ordination, criminal law, procedural law, the cult of saints, and the treatment of heretics.
Since no original manuscripts of canonical texts from Late Roman North Africa have survived, our reconstruction of these regulations depends entirely on the aforementioned collections, most of which were written centuries after the texts they preserve. Virtually all extant manuscripts transmitting African conciliar canons date from after the eighth century, and none of them were produced in Africa itself. Thus, there exists a considerable chronological and geographical distance between the original acts and their transmitters – a gap so wide that one can scarcely speak of transmission in the strict sense, but rather of reception.
This situation raises a series of questions: Why were these ecclesiastical texts so widely received in the first place? Were substantive alterations made to the African conciliar decrees in the course of their reception? How, in detail, did the process of transmission unfold? What was the “path” by which these African legal texts reached the medieval world? In other words: which later collections drew upon which earlier ones?
A central issue in this context concerns a canon law collection known as the Corpus canonum Africano-Romanum, which partly consists of African legal texts. Its origins remain a matter of vigorous scholarly debate: while there is consensus regarding the great importance of this collection, which arose already in Late Antiquity, its place, date, and purpose of composition continue to be disputed. Moreover, there has so far been no comprehensive study of the Corpus canonum Africano-Romanum that analyzes all extant textual witnesses and, on that basis, attempts to propose a coherent solution. The goal of the MSCA project AFRICANON was precisely to fill this gap.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In order to examine the Corpus canonum Africano-Romanum in detail, each of its manuscripts was first analyzed both by its external features and in terms of content. This investigation included not only the six manuscripts already known to Cuthbert Hamilton Turner – the discoverer of the Corpus canonum – (D, F, R, S, W, Y), but also two additional, albeit fragmentarily preserved, manuscripts (T and V). The manuscripts in question are:
• (D) Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 5508
• (F) Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 6243
• (R) Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Phill. 1743
• (S) Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, HB VI 113
• (T) Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 29550/1
• (V) Würzburg, Universitätsbibliothek, M.p.th.f. 18 + 21 + 59 + 144 + 149a + M.p.j.f. 5 + 7
• (W) Würzburg, Universitätsbibliothek, M.p.th.f. 146
• (Y) Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cvp 2141
The findings of this manuscript research have been made available in part through the host institution’s online repository (https://epub.oeaw.ac.at/africanon) and have also been incorporated into several entries in the Clavis canonum database (https://data.mgh.de/databases/clavis/wiki)
This work on the manuscripts has also resulted in two specialized studies: (1) On the transmission of the highly influential Council of Carthage of 419, which forms part of the Corpus canonum; (2) on the hitherto scarcely studied fragments of manuscript V, produced in Fulda around the mid-ninth century, which transmits portions of the Corpus canonum.
To gain a clearer understanding of the Corpus canonum’s genesis than has been possible thus far, the individual manuscripts were subsequently subjected to a detailed comparative analysis. The results – surpassing the current state of research – are presented in full in a comprehensive study which will shortly be made available to the scholarly community.
For illustrative purposes, a stemma codicum of the manuscripts was also prepared and uploaded to the host institution’s repository and to the SyGMa (see attachment).
In order to situate and reflect upon these findings within a broader context, two additional studies were undertaken. The first traces the transmission and reception of the African synods up to the High Middle Ages (intended for a broader audience). The second reconstructs the complex history of the reception of a particular African regulation down to the early modern period – specifically, the prohibition forbidding clerics to appeal to the Pope in Rome against episcopal judgments made in Africa. This latter study is expected to be completed within the coming days.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project yielded results that go well beyond the previous state of research. 1) For the first time, the origins of the Corpus canonum Africano-Romanum were examined on the basis of all extant textual witnesses. This analysis revealed that the Corpus canonum was probably not composed, as earlier scholarship has generally assumed, in the context of the so-called Apiarius affair – a dispute between the churches of Rome and Africa concerning the right of clerics to appeal to the Apostolic See. Rather, the collection appears to have been compiled only several decades later, in Italy, during the second half of the fifth century. It seems to have been conceived as a response to the fact that textual material reflecting the African perspective on the Apiarius controversy had been widely circulating in Italy. This material was incorporated into the Corpus canonum and supplemented with extensive textual additions and interpolations intended to “correct” the picture from a Roman point of view.
2) In addition, the project produced a handbook chapter that, for the first time, offers a comprehensive and accessible overview of the transmission and reception of the African canons in pre-Gratian canon law collections.
3) The study on the transmission of the synod of Carthage (419) likewise produced new and significant findings. Drawing on both the manuscript tradition and Charles Munier’s critical edition, it re-examined conclusions that had hitherto been regarded as established scholarly consensus. In particular, the thesis advanced by F. L. Cross – that the Canones in causa Apiarii were unrelated to the synod of Carthage and were only subsequently attributed to it – was subjected to fundamental scrutiny and ultimately called into question.
4) The study (commentary and edition) of the fragmentarily preserved manuscript V also brought to light new insights. This manuscript had previously received almost no scholarly attention and had not been considered in critical editions of the texts it contains. My edition of the surviving fragments makes it highly probable that manuscript V represents a partial transmission of the Corpus canonum Africano-Romanum.

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