Kent hosts premier academic conference in medieval canon law
The University is pleased to announce that it will host the 17th International Congress of Medieval Canon Law at its Canterbury campus 7 to 13 July.
The conference, which looks set to attract more than 200 international scholars, has been organised by the University’s Barbara Bombi (Professor of Medieval History) and Dr Edward Roberts (Senior Lecturer in Early Medieval History) along with Peter Clarke, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Southampton.
This is the first time the Congress has been held in the UK since 1984.
As part of the conference programme, there will be a Guest Open Lecture on 10 July by Kenneth Pennington, Professor of Ecclesiastical and Legal History Emeritus at the Catholic University of America (Washington DC). Titled ‘The Tyranny of Law’, Professor Pennington’s lecture will take place at 18.00 in Sibson Lecture Theatre 3. It is free and open to all.
The Congress of Medieval Canon Law is the premier academic conference in the field of medieval canon law and has met on alternate sides of the Atlantic since the 1960s. Traditionally it has drawn scholars from many countries, including not only medievalists and canonists, but also those who study related fields, such as Western jurisprudence and legal norms, Roman law, ecclesiastical and papal history, theology and biblical exegesis, manuscript studies, and the history of culture, society, and ideas.
Medieval canon law contributed to an international system of law for hundreds of years and had a significant impact on the development of Western legal norms, jurisprudence, and judicial procedure, as well as on the history of Christianity, especially the evolution of papal authority.
Professor Bombi said: ‘It is a great honour that we were invited to host this prestigious conference. Canterbury’s significance in the history of Western Christianity both before and after the Reformation was a great selling-point and we have been lucky to have the support of the Canterbury Cathedral community as well as the University of Kent Conference Office in staging the conference.’
Further information on the conference and Professor Pennington’s lecture is available on the Congress website.