Saints et reliques des decretalistes a benoit xiv

Saints and relics from the decretalists to benoit xiv

• Auteur / Autrice : Stéphane Boiron
• Direction : Brigitte Basdevant-Gaudemet
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Histoire du droit
• Date : Soutenance en 1997
• Etablissement(s) : Paris 11

Résumé

Forme de maniere coutumiere au cours du moyen age, le droit des saints et des reliques contribua, des le milieu du 13e siecle, au developpement du centralisme romain. Ce mouvement conduisit la papaute a se reserver, dans une premiere etape, le droit exclusif de proceder a la canonisation des saints. Afin de retirer aux eveques tout pouvoir en matiere d'approbation de la saintete, elle imagina, pour la categorie particuliere des bienheureux, une forme nouvelle de reconnaissance, celle de la beatification. Definitivement fixe au debut du 17e siecle, ce mode d'approbation etait concu comme la premiere etape d'une longue et complexe procedure debouchant sur la canonisation du saint. De la meme maniere, la papaute s'attacha a imprimer son controle sur les questions relatives aux reliques. Non sans diverses resistances et certains tatonnements juridiques, elle s'attribua le monopole de l'approbation des nouvelles reliques. Elle controla les manifestations de saintete dont les reliques pouvaient etre l'objet et regla les effets juridiques attaches a leur approbation. Sur le terrain, les eveques incarnaient toutefois l'autorite la plus competente pour faire respecter la discipline du culte des reliques. Ayant conserve le droit d'approuver les anciennes reliques, ils se chargeaient generalement de toutes les operations de reconnaissance. Ils fixaient les conditions d'exposition et de conservation des precieux restes. La nature particuliere des reliques imposait des limites a leur propriete. Tant sur leur appropriation que sur leur transfert, les autorites episcopales exercerent un controle extremement vigilant, le souverain pontife reglant les conflits les plus graves. Tout au long de l'epoque moderne, le droit de la saintete et des reliques connut, somme toute, une evolution tres lineaire, visant essentiellement deux fins : assurer a la papaute le controle de l'approbation des saints et garantir partout le respect du a leurs restes.

By the middle of the thirteenth century, the law of saints and relics, which had grown out of custom, contributed to the developement of roman centralization. This tendency led the papacy to retain, in an initial stage, the exclusive right to conduct the canonization of saints. In order to deny the bishops all power of approbation of sainthood, the popes invented a new form of recognition in the specific category of the blessed, that of beatification. Permanently codified in the beginning of the seventeenth century, this manner of approbation was conceived as the first stage in a long and complex process culminating in the canonization of the saint. Likewise, the papacy applied itself to assert its control over questions concerning relics. Its self-attribution of the monopoly over approbation of new relics was achieved despite various opposition and legal hesitation. It controlled the relics' manifestations of sainthood and regulated the legal consequences associated with their approbation. Locally the bishops nonetheless embodied the most competent authority to enforce the cult of relics. Having retained the right to approve old relics, they usually undertook all operations of authentification. It was they who set the conditions for exhibiting and preserving these precious remains. The special nature of relics imposed limits on their ownership. Whether for their appropriation or their transferral, the episcopal authorities exerted an extremely watchful control in which the pope intervened in the most serious conflicts. In the course of the modern period the law of saints and relics all in all underwent a very linear evolution with two essentials aims : assuring the papacy's control of the approbation of saints and guarantering the universal respect due to their earthly remains.