252 False Decretals
JUDAISM AND ISLAMFor medieval Judaism, faith primarily involved whether
one could trust and have confidence in the essential
goodness, steadfastness, and consistency of GODand
link with his people. After contact with the rival reli-
gions of Christianity and Islam, scholars began to apply
reason more systematically to these problems and to try
to provide a demonstrable and intellectually justified
basis for belief in God and covenant. In Islam the word
imanwas linked with belief, safety, and security. Sub-
mission to Islam could lead to peace and security. It
was to have an inner state and outward expressions
involving real deeds demonstrating belief, especially
daily prayer.
See alsoISLAM;JEWS ANDJUDAISM;JUDAH BENSAMUEL
HALEVI; MAIMONIDESMOSES;MYSTICISM;SCHOLASTICISM
AND THESCHOLASTIC METHOD; THEOLOGY, SCHOOLS OF.
Further reading:Thomas Aquinas, On Faith and Rea-
son,ed. Stephen F. Brown (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1999);
Francis Clark, Godfaring: On Reason, Faith, and Sacred
Being(Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America
Press, 2000); Anthony Kenny, Faith and Reason (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1983); Robert
Sokolowski, The God of Faith and Reason: Foundations of
Christian Theology (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of
Notre Dame Press, 1982).
False Decretals(Pseudo-Isidorian forgeries, Isidore
Mercator) They were a collection of influential but spu-
rious ecclesiastical laws, attributed to ISIDOREof Seville
from the seventh century; but actually composed in
northern France about 850. Their aims were to defend the
rights of the bishops against their metropolitans and to
support the papal claim to supremacy by using purported
fourth-century papal material and the DONATION OFCON-
STANTINE,later also revealed as a forgery. The skilled
author or authors were probably among the opponents of
HINCMARof Rheims. The compilation was based on access
to archives and genuine material and arranged with great
skill. In 865 Pope Nicholas I (r. 858–867) made use of
these Decretalsin the interests of the papacy by deploying
them to assert papal authority over synods and metropoli-
tans. Later generations considered the False Decretalsa
genuine document of high authority and broadcast by the
ambitious and reforming Pope GREGORYVII and partially
included in the Decretumof GRATIAN. It was only in the
mid-16th century that they were proved to be forgeries by
antipapal Protestants.
Further reading:James A. Brundage, Medieval Canon
Law(New York: Longman, 1995).
family and kinship The term family,the basic unit of
society, did not remain the same over the course of the
Middle Ages in the Christian West or East. In general
terms it can be defined as a group of persons united by
recognized links of consanguinity and marriage or a “kin-
ship group.” This concept was used in the Middle Ages,
as cognatioor parentela,that is, as recognized relation-
ships or ties of lineage according to canon, Germanic, tra-
ditional, or Roman law. The members of a network of this
nature were distributed in space in a single or more often
multiple residences. Family organization and manner of
residence varied with social status and wealth. In the
same society, the quality and composition of residential
units as the home of domestic groups varied by urban or
rural residence and permanency, or in the early Middle
Ages by movement from place to place. Its residents con-
stantly changed through births, marriages, economically
and socially motivated departures and arrivals, and
deaths.
In medieval society the networks of relatives and kin
making up families often extended beyond residential
units, whatever their size or class. Canon law fixed an
individual’s family and kinship ties with all blood rela-
tives, both paternal and maternal, and all spiritual con-
nections by marriage or sacramental ties through baptism
and godparenthood. These defined relatives were not
allowed to marry each other lest they suffer the conse-
quences of the sin of INCEST.
These family units were the primary and ordinary
networks for family strategies for the transmission of
property, status, economic obligation, name, and sym-
bolic prestige. Family solidarity was important in
medieval society, since it was linked to vengeance among
the aristocratic groups, feuding, and the waging of private
wars or political conflicts.
In Judaism the family and kinship remained more
stable as traditional law was modified to deal with new
situations when communities moved. Kinship remained
important in public and private life. Marriage was
expected if not commanded. Spouses had mutual rights
and obligations. Divorce was allowed under certain cir-
cumstances and according to the obligations of a mar-
riage contract.
In Islam, family(ahlor aila) was a comprehensive
term that included grandparents, uncles, aunts, and
cousins on both sides of a marital unit. It was assumed to
be an economic unit both for the nuclear family and for
the extended kin group. The QURANexpected mutual
respect and joint responsibility with duties and rights for
all members, including women and children. Islam itself
was viewed as a family.
See alsoCELIBACY; CHILDREN AND CHILDHOOD; CON-
TRACEPTION AND ABORTION; FEUDS; HOUSES AND HOUSING;
ICELAND ANDICELANDIC LITERATURE;JEWS ANDJUDAISM;
LAW, CANON AND ECCLESIASTICAL; MARRIAGE; NOBILITY AND
NOBLES; PEASANTRY; SEXUALITY AND SEXUAL ATTITUDES;
WILLS AND TESTAMENTS; WOMEN, STATUS OF.
Further reading:Zèev W. Falk, “Family and Family
Law, Jewish,” DMA4.605–608; Peter Fleming, Family and
Household in Medieval England (New York: Palgrave,