liberationIn 1140, the Decretum of Gratian, a textbook, appears to enhance unity
within the church as it seeks to reconcile the Roman and Franco-Germanic
legal traditions. This work stimulates schools of canon law in France and
England. Dating from about the thirteenth century, a faculty of canon law
is a common part of the general studies of European universities. The
Latin church begins to realize that Roman law can be exploited in the
interests of the church. The church exploits several features of Roman
law: its theory of law, its approach to justice, its understanding of contracts
and pacts, and its maxims and reflect principles. The result of this exploit-
ing is that civil law is almost a prerequisite for the study of canon law.
Canon law is based on sources in the Bible, the Church Fathers, the
canon of Church councils and the decrees of the Popes, Lombard or feu-
dal law, and Germanic law. Civil law is an actual source of canon law in
the sense that the laws of Christian emperors become the law of both the
church and the state. In a sense, canon law is an imitation of the civil law.
In addition, canon law also represents a reaction against the civil code. In
this opposing system, the Pope takes the place accorded by civil law to
the Emperor.Further reading: Berman (1983); Murphy (1997); Rawls (1999); Rosen (1989)LIBERATION
A concept that means to attain freedom, emancipation, or enlightenment
within the context of Eastern religious cultures. It is also associated with
similar notions such as salvation, redemption, and absolution within a
Western religious context. In both East and West, the concept of libera-
tion carries political connotations. For the most part, it is more strictly
used in an Eastern religious culture, such as Indian Hinduism, to refer to
becoming liberated from the cycle of birth and death.
In Hinduism, the Sanskrit term for a liberated individual is jīvanmukti
(one who is liberated while alive). Such a person reaches this condition by
achieving the highest form of knowledge, after having renounced the
world, following an ascetic life-style, and practicing meditation. The free-
dom of the liberated person can only be achieved while a person is alive,
which implies that liberation from the cycle of life and death is not a post-
mortem event. Thus it shares nothing with dying and then going to a place
such as heaven. If a person does not achieve liberation during their life-
time, that individual is reborn after death. The Brihadāranyaka Upanishad
(4.2.4) describes the liberated person as ungraspable, undecaying, and as