Il papato romano e il nesso norma-prassi nei secoli XI-XII

The 11th and 12th centuries are characterized by numerous general councils, held by the Roman pontiff : these meetings were, in the intentions of the Pope, instruments for applying the reform of the Church. The Roman Church used canons in order to try to impose its guidelines for governing the societas Christiana. These, however, are not norms designed with the aim to immediate application : more often than not, in fact, the very pontiffs who called upon the council and who promulgated the conciliar constitutions did not follow the canonical rules and prefer to adopt the dispensatio and aequitas practices for specific cases. The flexibility of the law and the opportunity to waive the norm became, for the Roman papacy, means of intervention in the dioceses : here, the Milanese case will be analyzed. The analysis will show the instrumental nature of the law from the point of view of the pontiffs.