The concept of “reception” connotes the voluntary “adoption of cultural goods or individual cultural elements from elsewhere,” proceeding either in a deliberate way within a limited period of time, or in an unplanned, long-term social process [19. 116]; [25. 125–133]. The latter applies in the case of the reception of Roman canon law, which as a pan-European process took place over a period from the 12th to the 19th century (Antiquity, reception of).