From 'Lex aeterna' to the 'leges addictae': John of La Rochelle and the Summa Halensis

The issue of law is a crucial topic within late medieval culture as a whole, not merely from the point of view of canonists and civil lawyers. At the beginning of the 13th century, the concept of law and its diverse forms preoccupied theologians, particularly within the Parisian milieu. The development of a structured and systematic theological understanding of reality defined a new framework within which 'law' was considered as a major genre, with a series of species which are necessary to analyse. In this context, John of La Rochelle, one of the very first Franciscan masters of theology at Paris, composed his Quaestiones disputatae de legibus, which represent the very first complete theological account of law and its forms. Starting from the eternal law, John examines natural law, the prescribed laws, and the law of Moses. His text is the direct source of the treatise on law of the Summa Halensis and offers a veritable paradigm for the whole scholastic debate on this issue.