Medieval panorama : the English scene from conquest to Reformation / by G.G. Coulton.
- George Gordon Coulton
- Date:
- 1947
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Medieval panorama : the English scene from conquest to Reformation / by G.G. Coulton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
49/842 (page 29)
![election had been made by all in common, without fault, as if by inspiration”. Then, as the greater precision of the numerical voting system became evident, the principle of majority decision crept in little by little. At first it was hedged in by a very serious qualification; a bare majority would not suffice; it must be a majority not merely of numbers but of quality; one of the two sides must be able to show not only more, but “sounder”, electors: major et saniorpars. That principle appears already in St Benedict’s Rule (ch. 64); it was taken into Gratian’s Decretum as a supplementary note, and conse¬ crated by Innocent III at his Ecumenical Council of 1215. Here it is decreed that the candidate is to be counted as bishop elect “upon whom all, or the major et sanior pars of the chapter, have agreed”. But here is a gross ambiguity. A child can count the majority among fifty votes, but who is to distinguish the saniority ? No Pope or council, through all the medieval centuries, ever attempted this. Innocent himself can scarcely have been ignorant of the fact that, some eighty years earlier, Europe had been plunged into conflict and bloodshed by a disputed papal election. There, the numerical minority of electors claimed superior sanioritas for Innocent II because they had on their side more cardinal bishops; and the numerical majority, because they had more who had been raised to the cardinalate earlier than their opponents. To one side, “soundness” meant rank, and to the other, seniority: hence civil war. When the canon lawyers were confronted with this crucial phrase, and mere evasion under vague generalities was no longer possible, it may almost be said that their professional definition was even more vague than that which they set out to define: ignotum per ignotius. This is so important for the estimate of medieval mentality that I must here add another paragraph for the sake of all readers who are interested in the progress of human thought; other readers may prefer to take it as read. Esmein (p. 375) quotes the definition of one of the greatest medieval canonists, Panormitanus, who died in 1453 and had the collective wisdom of two centuries of predecessors to work upon. It runs thus: “Sanioritas consists in authority, %eal, and merit. Authority may be seen in the dignity of the electors, their greater age, their more ancient appointment, and their higher [ecclesi¬ astical] orders. Those who are superior in these different claims](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29978579_0049.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
