Title:
Alternate names/spellings:
Dates: 1100 - 1200 (Dates are approximate. These are the dates Gratian flourished. )
Little is known about the jurist Gratian, neither the dates of his birth and death, his first name, nor (despite an erroneous but long held tradition) his clerical status. Despite the biographical uncertainty, Gratian was acclaimed by Dante as the "Father of Canon Law" for his Harmony of the Discordant Canons, a text which drew together the often conflicting opinions of the church fathers and popes to form a synthesis which became the basis for canon law until 1919.
For additional information, see:
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"Wikipedia":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratian_(jurist)
- "Domus Gratiani":http://pantheon.yale.edu/~haw6/gratian.html, a website maintained by Anders Winroth (Yale University) devoted to Gratian studies.
Resources: Medieval Canon Law Virtual Library