Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Ecclesiastical law
(5,792 words)

1. Foundations of Catholic and Protestant ecclesiastical law

The ecclesiastical law of the early modern period is characterized by the loss of the religious unity that shaped the Middle Ages. In a revolutionary departure [2. 503] following the Lutheran Reformation in 1517, alongside the law of the Roman Catholic Church, summarized in the Corpus Iuris Canonici, there now stood a different basic understanding of the role of law in the chu…

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Weitzel, Jürgen, Klippel, Diethelm and Synek, Eva, “Ecclesiastical law”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_022201>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20170626



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