Paul Fournier (1853-1935)
In Olivier Descamps and Rafael Domingo, Great Christian Jurists in French History (Cambridge University Press, 2019) (Forthcoming)
19 Pages Posted: 26 Feb 2018
Date Written: February 14, 2018
Abstract
A leading figure and restorer of the history of canon law in France, Paul Fournier became in his lifetime and remains today a worldwide distinguished historian of medieval canon law. Many of his writings, especially those dealing with medieval ecclesiastical courts and those referring to canonical collections, have held up under the scrutiny of time. His academic footprint has continued through the work of great students and students of students, such as Gabriel Le Bras and Jean Gaudemet. As a supporting actor in the religious events related to the French Third Republic, Fournier was able to accommodate his traditional Catholicism to the new social trends and to sow peace in a turbulent moment in the relations between the Church and the French State. The influence he exercised over the general ideas of his time, both in the legal field and in philosophical and moral terms, cannot be minimized. Men like Fournier enabled the Church to reconcile itself with the state and with science.
Keywords: France, history of canon law, medieval law, ecclesiastical institutions, French Third Republic
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