Christianity and Medieval Civil Law

In the twelfth century, Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis became the basis of the science of civil law. The books of Justinian’s laws (libri legales) and the set of interpretations accompanying them were seen as the ius commune (common law) of the Christian society in temporal matters, in connection with canon law, which concerned spiritual matters. Universities were the places where this science developed and from which the ius commune was radiated and gave shape to many aspects of medieval society, including church-state relations, labor and employment, contracts and loans, and aspects of marriage and family life that are sampled herein. Christianity inspired the encounter of civil law with canon law and theology. This encounter helped form a homogeneous legal culture from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, and rendered medieval law and society an important foundation for the development of European and Western civilization.