Medieval Jurists: Legal Commentary and Rational Inquiry

The School of Commentators: Legal Adaptation

The founder of this school was Cino of Pistoia. These jurists of the school focused on the entire corpus of law (Roman law, canon law, feudal law, municipal rights) and were strongly oriented towards practical purposes, seeking to unify and adapt regulations to the needs of the late Middle Ages.

New Intellectual Attitude

The new intellectual attitude of the commentators involved a different approach to the tension between truth and reality, associated with the development of Thomistic scholasticism.

Reaction Against Fundamentalism

This movement represented a reaction against the "fundamentalist" currents. These fundamentalists wanted to reduce all valid and legitimate knowledge to that contained in the texts of authority. They recommended resolving all problems, both practical and theoretical, by focusing exclusively on revealed truth or argument from authority, leaving out reason or rational activity. Consequently, secular arts and sciences were only studied if they served a purpose in interpreting authoritative tradition.

Revival of Reason and Secular Sciences

The discovery of Aristotle's logical texts, coupled with the recognition that Scripture texts were insufficient to address new social and cultural problems, led to a revival of belief in reason and the rebirth of the profane sciences. Although interference from theology regarding the rational processes of pagan philosophers (the Greeks and Romans) is suspected, the disciplines of moral right, philosophy, and natural sciences became central to free intellectual inquiry.

Philosophical Stance Adopted

This movement imposed a philosophical attitude considered:

• Realistic: Because it intended to investigate not what the scriptures or authority stated about things, but the very nature of things.
• Rationalist: Because it sought to carry out this research through a rational and disciplined process based on rules for "thinking properly," learned from the classical philosophers.

It kept alive the idea that law, the custodian of experience, is a set of rules that the interpreter can alter. The task of updating the law should be made from within this order fixed by an authority and should resemble a work of mere interpretation.

Impact of Intellectual Tools

The break in the level of intellectual tools allowed the commentators to create innovations that managed to establish themselves as dogmatic conquests, unchanged for later doctrine. These innovations include: