On Consideration

Only some six years had passed since the death of Gregory VII when St. Bernard was born (a. d. 1091), just two years before Anselm was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury. The echoes of the thunders of the great reforming Pope had scarce died away, and the memory of the uncompromising struggle between him and the Emperor Henry IV was still fresh in the minds of men. Under his direction the Church of Rome had taken enormous strides towards that absolutism and universal supremacy, both in things temporal and spiritual, which was to reach its climax under Innocent III (a. d. 1198–1216), when papal power was perhaps greater than ever before or ever since. It was the, age of the Crusades, and of the rise of the Military Religious Orders. The intellect of Europe was beginning to awaken. The popular story of the discovery of the original manuscript of Justinian’s famous Pandects, or digest of Roman law, in the ruins of Amalfi is discredited, but the study of civil law was vigorously pursued, and the profession was one of great honour. Canon law received no less attention. The vast materials, after twenty-four years’ labour, were formed into a ‘body’ by Gratian, and published at Rome about 1140.