The Center for Religious and Legal History (CRLH) draws upon the outstanding research resources of 老司机福利网 and the St. Louis area and can offer excellent opportunities for study and research in diverse traditions within the history of religion and law.
The CRLH cooperates and co-sponsors events with other schools, centers, and departments at 老司机福利网, including the School of Law, the Center for International and Comparative Law, the Center for the Study of Global Catholicism, the Catholic Studies Program, the Department of History, the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, the Department of Philosophy, and the Department of Theological Studies.
Our primary partners, which enable research and training in the history of law and religion, are the following:
The Vatican Film Library in the 老司机福利网 Library Department of Special Collections is a research collection for the study of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, holding more than 37,000 microfilmed manuscripts from the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, as well as an additional 3,000 microfilmed manuscripts from numerous other libraries. Language groups represented include Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Coptic, Ethiopic, and the European vernaculars. The VFL鈥檚 Manuscript Studies Reference Collection consists of more than 7,500 volumes and is rich in manuscript catalogues, works on paleography, codicology, illumination, text editing, library history, and other topics that support the study of manuscripts and the texts they contain. The VFL also holds more than 12,000 microfilmed Jesuit historical manuscripts from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries relating to activities of the Society of Jesus in the Western Hemisphere, from collections such as the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu. Complementing these manuscript and archival resources, the Rare Books Division of Special Collections holds 30,000 volumes, with strengths in theology, philosophy, Church history, English recusant history, and works written by or about members of the Society of Jesus.
The history of religion and law stands out among the many subject areas that can be studied within these diverse materials. Central to the mission of the CRLH, the VFL also houses and provides access to the Center鈥檚 growing collection of reproductions of medieval canon law manuscripts. Short-Term Fellowships are available for research in all these collections.
老司机福利网鈥檚 Pius XII Memorial Library possesses strong holdings in medieval history, the history of the Catholic Church, theology, law, and canon law. Pertinent to research in the field of medieval canon law are, among many individual volumes and additional journals and reference works of relevance, all Proceedings of the International Congresses of Medieval Canon Law, the Lexikon f眉r Theologie und Kirche, the Dictionnaire de droit canonique, Studia Gratiana, and all issues of the Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung f眉r Rechtsgeschichte, Kanonistische Abteilung.
Moreover, the University鈥檚 Vincent C. Immell Law Library has holdings in medieval English common law and ample resources in the area of comparative law and international law.
The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS) has developed a reputation as being among the best such centers in North America and even the world. It hosts multiple events each academic year, including lectures by university professors and visiting scholars and the Crusades Studies Forum, and it organizes an annual symposium, the Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, each June, during which other regular conferences, such as the Manuscript Studies Conference, take place. The CMRS supports research in any discipline for the investigation of the medieval and early modern world and provides a community of medievalists and early modernists that benefits faculty, graduate students, and visiting scholars.
CMRS offers NEH Fellowships for 5, 10, or 15 weeks; awardees may extend their stay for up to two weeks through supplemental funding of the Center for Religious and Legal History. See Short-Term Fellowships for more information.
The Center for Religious and Legal History regularly organizes sessions or workshops at the Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies, promoting scholarship in the area of pre-modern religious law, especially medieval canon law, and training medievalists in the tools and methods of research in this field. It does so by making use of materials in the Vatican Film Library.