The Idea of “Divine Love” and the Jurisprudence in the Medieval Europe

This thesis is the study of the idea of “divine love” and the jurisprudence in the medieval Europe. The idea of divine love in Christianity leads to the emphases on mercy and forgiveness, whereas the main duty of jurisprudence is criminal punishment. Therefore, it has difficulty to carry out the idea of divine love on the jurisprudence because of the dilemma of mercy and justice, which is the main theme of this thesis. The first part of this thesis deals with how the teaching of Christian love affected the ideas of morality and law in medieval theology. The second part presents how the idea of Christian love being realized on the medieval jurisprudence, included canon law and secular law systems.