Epitome
The purpose of this article is to emphasize the role of ethics from among other sciences that study human nature and also to reveal its common points with law and sociology. For this it is presented the greek school of philosophy and some of its greatest scholars, Plato and Artistotle. Christian ethics had an important role in human history and civilazation, starting with Moses and the frist code of morals. Then the philosophers St. Augustine and Thomas D Aquinas debated the nature and the role of the state and natural law. The reformation period, represented by Martin Luther, changed people regarding the responsibility of ones actions.
Hopefully this article answers the question of every modern men: „ Do we need ethics?”
The necessity of a science appears usually under the incidence of two factors, having a cumulative character in its accomplishment, the objective and the subjective ones, its purpose being to serve in practice, to support an economic, social and cultural progress.
According to the multiple aspects of the human life, the social or humanist sciences that deal with individuals and the relationship established between them in a determined society have their own system of disciplines. Here we can distinguish the juridical science close to the ethic one, known as normative sciences, because the fragment from the social and human reality they study is represented by norms, juridical or moral, as they may be (operating with some concepts, definitions and principles)1.
It became a frequent practice, in the doctrine, for the authors, when talking about the object of law science, to include the analyse of its connection with other social phenomena. One of them may be the ethics or the moral, that has a manifestation very much connected to law, with a day-to-day character, that appears at individual or collective level.
The practical philosophy, or the ethics, tries to justify the behaviours and the actions that determine the human existence, individually or socially, that become visible and, so, perceptible as moral actions or not. The human action represents a special case of behaviour, this one circumscribing any activity of an organism reported to the surrounding. The human action is always equivoque and interpretable, the German sociologist Max Weber considering that it may have a different subjective sense. The functioning of the social system is due, as such, to the fact that each of the individuals understands or accepts the reasons of somebody else’s action, reaching a commutation, fictive and temporary, inside the other one’s world; world that, otherwise, through the complexity and oneness of its determinations, determined, in one way or another, the action itself.2
Law is called to order and orientate the human behaviour, after the profound research of the human existence dynamic, of the factors that shape it and of the values it takes into consideration as determinants and, accordingly, promotes them. This system or circuit is reflected by the juridical phenomenon in three plans: an ideatic one (the theories, the juridical culture), another one – normative (the objective law) and the last one, the plan of the social relationship and the eventful or factual plan3, the last one presenting the most interferences between ethics and law.
The resemblances between ethics and law are mentioned in the literature of specialty, both referring to the reports between the individual and the collectivity and establishing the behavioural models, concerning the human existence. Both build their prescriptions on one of the most important themes of the universal thinking, the one of liberty.4
Thus, some questions arose very concretely: When is an action just or unjust?; What is the nature of the differentiation between right and wrong? and How is justice possible?
The notion of justice implies many senses, assimilated in different proportions by the members of the society. One of them is the one of legality, of justice and morality, having a complex and subjective sense, or the one of justice as worth, especially manifested at the level of the individual concepts.
Along the years the philosophers tried to determine the positive value of a certain behaviour, determination that is absolutely necessary in the consolidation of a certain order. That is why some actions have been considered just through their own intrinsic value, having, consequently, an absolute value (summum bonum) wished for itself and not as means, or just due to the subordination to a certain moral standard.
The notions of moral, ethic, just have been completed, due to a direct and objective determination, the result of the social-political conditions met at certain moments and phases of the society’s development, some concepts that appeared definitive in the judgment of the human action. It was taken into consideration, either the divine will, when the obedience in front of the sacred texts is considered as the most important standard of the human existence, or the print of nature, when the existence according to some natural behavioural lines or types is what determines the positive or negative character of an action, or the imperatives of the reason, when a moral conduct is the result of the cognitive processes, compulsory for the concept of human being.5
1. THE
Nietzsche used to say6: The results of all the schools and of all their experiences are lawfully due. We won’t omit to adopt any stoic receipt, on the pretext that we have already used epicurean receipts. The learning of the Greeks became, indeed, along the centuries, one of the most important sources of perception of different concepts, presenting themselves with a great diversity and complexity.
Pythagoras was the one who elaborated the first philosophy of the moral, from an old mystical cult devoted to Orpheus that was considered to be founded on the writings of the legendary poet. The fragments found in the 6-th century B.C. indicated a cosmogony that had in its centre the figure of Dionysus. According to this creed, peoples shouldn’t abandon themselves to evil, but would better follow the way to discovering their good, divine nature, attending purifying rituals.7
One of the greatest Greek philosophers is Platoon (428 – 348 B.C.). His intention is a political one, believing, in fact, that the political life could be changed through the philosophical education of peoples.
On Platoon’s opinion, the good is an essential element for reality, the evil being, in fact, an imperfect reflexion of reality. The philosopher talks about virtues, the ones specific for the human being, due to the three components of the human soul, wisdom, courage, temper, as well as the supreme virtue that is justice, representing the harmonious relationship between all the others. 9
The theme of justice is a central one in the history of ethics. A first given sense was the one of equity of a system of laws. The Greeks asked themselves if the sense of justice is due to nature or is born from certain social conventions. The philosophers to come reached to the idea that justice serves to the defence of everybody’s interests, nevertheless going on in contradicting itself on the idea according to which the standards of justice are relative from one society to the other or are universal. The tradition of the natural law supports the idea that justice is divine, finding its roots in the divine will and, accordingly, in the attributes of the human being. The skepticals contested the idea of universality as being a sign of hypocrisy and selfishness10. But justice doesn’t signify that all the members of the society are equally treated. For instance, an infringer of law to be treated equally to his victim. It is asked, in fact, for an equal consideration towards each person or, more precisely, towards the rights of each person, needing a good reason for a differential treatment. The differential treatment doesn’t refer to discriminating measures that, in their general sense, concerning peoples’ equality, are forbidden by law.
The schemes of justice are differently applied in each society, thus reaching to a distinction between the distributive and retributive justice or the procedural and social justice. The first one refers to the respect of the objective laws, of the juridical, economical norms, those ones being valid for all the members of the society, their non-respect bringing the responsibility, through the sanctioning of the respective fact by law. The social justice actions on much more colourful principles, because it tries to offer an equalization of individuals’ chances, the most outstanding examples being the theories of Karl Marx (the distribution of goods is done on peoples’ necessities or needs) and Aristotle (the individual worth of peoples).11
Platoon’s dialogue The Republic is the most important as for the idea of state and justice, the political sense being subordinated to the moral – educational component, proposing many themes: What is justice and injustice? ; Where does the moral necessity come from, for a state and for an individual, to found themselves on the principle of justice?; What is the principle of the good order in a society?.
The answer formulated for the first question is the myth of Gyges. According to it, justice is not a definitive feature of the human being, but, even more than that, nobody is willingly just but only forced and the one who does justice does it from his powerlessness to do un-justice, so, the essence of the human being is the injustice. But Socrates proposes the good as behavioural rule, in antithesis with an un-controlled, selfish behaviour. For Socrates the practice of justice was synonymous with virtue.12 The philosopher reaches the conclusion that justice means that every person is preoccupied in the state with the job he was trained for. So, it is reached the well-known “political” formula that presents the state as being led by philosopher kings.
But Socrates’ conviction, the theme of the dialogue Criton, makes Platoon search for the reason of law in wisdom, in philosophy, thinking that the reign if the infallible kings is, nevertheless, a utopia. What is essential in a society is the knowledge of good (the perfect leader can do without laws, because there is no law above knowledge and the spirit shouldn’t be subordinated to any law)13.
The law is imperfect because it is an imitation. The way to true knowledge can be fulfilled only when a detachment from perceptions, from their captivity, is tried (the well-known theme of the cave). But however imperfect laws could be, they still have the role to establish a certain hierarchy of values, they themselves being values.
Platoon dedicates the greatest part of his work to the fight against moral and political decay, fighting against the sophists he considered real enemies of truth, because, as they used to say, they could demonstrate that something is real and fake in the same time. The political community specific for the history of Greeks, the polis, is the practical space of the accomplishment of the moral life and it represents for Greeks not only an important economical community but, in the same time, the ensemble of the social life aspects of a determined community.14
Aristotle (384 – 322 B.C.), Platoon’s disciple, was the philosopher who mainly influenced the Roman juridical thinking and the political science and then the mediaeval one15.
His purpose in life is happiness, the eudaimonia, as he names it. In The Nicomahic Ethics, that may be considered the first scientific system of ethics, he defines happiness as the activity that equals the specific of the human nature, what is searched for itself, and never for somebody else’s sake. But there is a sharp distinction between the aspiration for happiness and the simple living of some sensations of pleasure. From here, two distinct ways to discover the eudaimonia. The first one refers to the theoretic existence, considered to be the supreme model, that is in the search of the principles of reality and that supposes contemplative activities. This existence doesn’t need an exterior intervention, namely the one of the law. The second way is represented by the practical existence that becomes, in fact, a necessity since the existence in a socially and politically determined space, as the one of the polis, and it is a practical orientation of the theoretical existence, that not only needs the intervention of law, but, in a certain measure, owes its continuity to this existence.16
In his dialogue The Politics, Aristotle talks about justice and state, the justice being a moral virtue that can’t be manifested but in society, giving politics a great importance and condemning anarchy. The city has the great role to “fulfil” justice, a distributive one, where the function of recognizing everyone what is just to belong to him, everyone being entitle to receive exactly what he deserves, as well as a compensative one, in order to correct injustice, either in the best interest of the city (when the public interest is prime), or in private interest.
As Platoon, Aristotle talks about virtues leading to a happy life (justice, generosity, braveness). They represent a rational average between “too much” and “too little” that must be known and learnt; the one who runs from everything and is afraid and doesn’t dare anything, becomes a lazybones, the one who isn’t afraid of anything, but faces everything, becomes audacious, as the one who takes advantage in any pleasure not having any limits becomes uncontrolled, and the one who avoids all of them becomes insensitive. Therefore, moderation and courage are destroyed both by excess and insufficiency, while moderation saves them.17
For Platoon as well as for Aristotle the state represents a necessity. The state regulates the life of the individuals – that, therefore, belongs to it – helped by law. Law, in order to be just, should base itself on morality and on the practice of virtues.
2. CHRISTIAN ETHICS
Once the Christianity appeared18, a new series of social – ethic concepts emerged, with a great impact on the already known and practiced systems.
The old tendency of this system intended to relate any action to God’s will, peoples being in an absolute dependence on divinity and without possibility to know the good or the evil but through this will.
The primary Christian creed was settled by rules as: everything you want peoples to do for you, do it, as well, for them ( Mateo 7:12), or the imperative to love your enemies (Mateo 5:4), or Jesus’ words: Give Cesar what is for Cesar and God, what is for God (Mateo 22:21). The main sense of the Jewish law is: Love your God from all your heart, with all your power and with all your thought and your fellow man as yourself. (Luca 10:27), all these being found in the holly book of the Bible, that, besides the fact that it has a main role in educating peoples in a Christian sense, of the belief in God and his powers, played an important role in educating peoples in a moral and even “juridical” sense.
One of the clearest examples in this sense is The Decalogue of Moise.
C.F.Potter supports the fact that the Christianity as well as the Mohammedanism are the direct products of the Judaism founded by Moise and their moral flows from his moral, the importance of Moise moment being understood, if we compare the religion from the beginning of his mission with the religion he left after, as a historical bridge between superstition and religion.19
One of the problems Moise was confronted with in the desert was the one of the elaboration of a system to guarantee the maintenance of some good relationship between rival individuals, groups and tribes, finding, as such, the solution in the elaboration of the Decalogue.
In the Bible there are two well-defined and distinct Decalogues, the one from the Exodus (20:1-17) that is also found in the Deuteronom with small modifications (5:6-21) and the less used from the Exodus (34:14-26).20
Moise was the one who took out the Israelites from
So, the Decalogue is a direct divine revelation. It is the foundation of all the ethical – juridical systems of the human condition, but, first of all, it is a “primary legislation” given to the people of
Because the chosen people was not from a state or a political form that could have been invested with some authority, the only possibility to guarantee the respect of the norms was their registration in the divine sphere, more precisely, of the divine commandments. More than that, the norms belonging to a religious moral or finding, or not, the a posteriori expression in the legal texts, have a bigger impact on peoples, due to the fact that they belong to the sacred that is considered to be perfect, good, just by itself, wished for its perfection. More than that, the submission of the people of Israel and latter of the Christians, during the Roman empire and during Nero’s oppression, around 64 B.C., compared to any other profaned texts would have equalled an act of treason towards their owns but first of all towards God. Thus, the fact that the Decalogue was inscriptioned, according to tradition, under the direct intervention of the transcendent, is perfectly explained by the social – political conditions of that period. It also was an important step in the development of the people of
This law has a religious character, as a whole. God doesn’t protect but those who are faithful to Him, if they respect their fellow men, the law and doesn’t oppress the others. It is a religious law, a prophetic, nationalist, warlike one, but, in the same time, humanist and rationalist.21
But, through some of its aspects, the laws express clearly the potentials of a violent and intolerant civilization and more than conservative as for its own blood: If it is to be found on you (…) man or woman who could have done evil in front of God eyes, not respecting His oath and will go and serve other Gods and will bend in front of them (…) and will be announced and will hear it, search well and if this is true and this evil will have been done in Israel, take that man or woman, who did evil, out to your gates and kill them with stones. (Deuteronome 17:2-5).22
A strong feeling for justice can be detached from the Mosaic law, law that used to be done with means that are considered wrong today (the lex talionis), determined by their contemporary conditions, ways that the nations of the world tried to undermine promoting an arbitrary dialogue and judgment.
Moise led the people of Israel to the Land of Promise that he perceived in the heights of Moab Mountain, giving them a code of sacrum and profane moral in which the individual is searching for justice and justice again (Deuteronome 16:20)23
Ethics of the Church priests. One of the greatest theologians,
Justice is a perfect virtue coming from God, reaching an identification of the two concepts, so, it is untouchable, none of us being able to wish for justice; but we may intuit what is right or wrong by comparison with the divinity. So we may formulate the two well-known concepts of: civitas Dei, love of God up to forgetting and self-contempt and civitas terrena, love of the self up to forgetting and despising God. The sin is the essence of the city of peoples and it is defined as the love of the creature for another creator but more than for the creator, the place of justice being civitas Dei; those predestined to be redeemed are those who make it, being called to eternal happiness, those who make the earthly city being for ever deemed. 27
So, there is an eternal law and a “natural” law, this one being the strengthening of the first one in the human body. The positive laws should derive from the natural ones and their destination is to defend the peace and social order established by God and if some of them don’t derive from the natural law the, their respect is not compulsory.28
In the 13-th century the Aristotle current was pleading for the empirical knowledge, as an opposite of the revelation, menaced the authority of the Church. The theologian Thomas D’Aquino (1228 – 1274) succeeded to make peace between the two, in his work “Summa Teologica”, succeeding to survive and convert Aristotel29 to catholicism.30
Before him, the occidental thinking was dominated by the thinking of Augustine as well as of other great philosophers of the 4-th and 5-th centuries. Preserving certain continuity with his Aristotle influences, the theologian elaborates a theory of the truth. It is about the theory of sequence, synthetized in the formula: veritas est adaequatio intellectus et rei (the truth is the sequence between spirit and thing). The thing is called true only if it is in a sequence with the spirit that knows.31
But it is decisive to take into consideration, in the formulation of the theory, the sequence between the things of nature and the divine and human spirit: the things of nature (…) are called true function of their sequence with both of them: function of the sequence with the divine spirit they are called true if they fulfil the tasks they have been granted with by the divine spirit (…). Function of the sequence with the human spirit they are called true if they have to justify, in themselves, a correct judgment.32
So we can make reference now to the truth of the law. We may consider as “closer” to the divine spirit the natural law that, more than sure, has a very well shaped function influencing many aspects of the human existence, including the natural law. It has a very clear function: to assure the continuity of the human existence, being very close to divine knowledge. The human law, positive, is true only in the measure in which it is in concordance with the natural law in which it can offer solutions corresponding to human nature.
Thomas D’Aquino continues St.Augustine’s idea concerning the superiority of the divine kingdom on the interests of the human state, the interests if the peoples, drawn by principles, that should be subordinate to the spiritual interests represented by the Pope, so he underlines what characterized from the political point of view, a great part of the Middle Age, namely the teocracy.33
Aristotle’s ideas find their influence also in the idea of the theologian who doesn’t see anymore, as his predecessor, in the state an instrument of Satan and a result of the sin, but a development and evolution of the individual who is a social human being.
Ethics and reform. The influence of Christian ethics diminished during the Reform. Generally speaking in this period the individual’s responsibility is considered more important than the responsibility towards an authority or towards tradition, this change implicitly leading to a modification of concepts and to the development of a modern ethics.
One of the most important contribution in this sense is the one of Martin Luther.
During the night of the 31-th of October 1517, Luther showed on the door of the Church the ninety-five thesis establishing the free forgiveness of the sins, as an adverse reaction to what Middle Age knew under the term of indulgences. The thesis enjoyed a great success and have been immediately translated into German and largely distributed. Luther supported his arguments through university public debates, his acts enjoying a great success among students coming to listen to his lectures. All these lead, in the end, to a “sentencing” of his concepts in 1520 and to his excommunication in 1521.34
The condemned fact was represented by the ethical problems he raised to the Church, defying through his clarity as well as through his sharpness: Those who share indulgences are wrong when they say that the forgiveness of sins given by the Pope assures the forgiveness of any sin and everybody’s salvation: those who believe that the papal indulgences bring forgiveness of the sins will be cursed as well as their masters; the Christian who sincerely repents gets the forgiveness of his sins without papal indulgence.35
Thus Luther withdraws from under the domination of the Church what was considered to be the attribute and its “license”, namely the ethical action, placing the attribute of the morality as something natural and tangible in its proper existence.
The reformer also talks about laws and Evangel, supporting the idea that divinity is sensed in peoples lives in two ways: through law (representing the ethical requests of God, expressed in order to be best known in the Decalogue) and through the Evangel (that is the gift of divinity). All the peoples, no matter their religious convictions have a certain degree of access to what represent these legal – ethical commandments and through their own ethical culture, although the understanding of this thing is affected by sin. The law has two functions: it helps people to maintain order inside their world, inside their community, in spite of their furthering from God and makes people conscious of the need of salvation of sins, leading them towards creed and ethic ideal. Luther used to think that inside all the Christian live in the same time the sinful and the saint, so that the most respected citizen and a criminal, too, need God’s forgiveness.36
He detached himself from his predecessors, because of his convictions, erasing a part of the Middle Ages’ darkness, during which peoples were easy preys due to their ignorance and who are learning now that it is very important to bear on your own the responsibility of being moral and of acting as such.
It is to notice the fact that the divinity didn’t lose its character of example, of model, of ideal in matter of justice, morality remaining the point of reference in the peoples’ lives and in their actions. What was, nevertheless, changed, is the peoples’ attitude towards themselves, towards their own creeds and the liberty of their spirit to which they gave a greater importance, and assumed a greater responsibility of their deeds starting from this point to behave, in a certain way, ethically.
3. CONCLUSIONS
The purpose of mankind’s aspirations is to create a just world where justice and legitimacy have the main place inside an amorphous society with a lot of principles and customs belonging to different funds. The common denominator all should report to could be just the system of moral values. What would be the authority of this system?, could be the question. The authority is given, from centuries, by people who started to consider themselves individuals and to try to develop in common sense, in order to build an existence in society and so they understood that they should conceive some things and formulate some ideas, so that they, as well as their fellow citizens, can live enjoying liberty.
The attribute of moral belongs to the rational human beings. They are the only ones who are conscious of themselves and of the world around them.
Ethics can be considered as element of the divine sphere re-found inside the human being, or it may be considered as the element of the human nature, or as a form of the self-consciousness, or as a process of accumulating during time some truths unanimously accepted, or as foundation of the regulation of law, or as print to establish the legitimacy of the human actions or even of the legitimacy of the state institutions.
It must, for sure, exist in the modern societies in order to make the existence of each individual easier, in order to guarantee his individual liberty and to offer the legitimacy of the law’s settlements.
The complex and common system of moral values, generally accepted by individuals and by society, offers to law the authority and power of sanctioning, its action being, at its turn, for the protection of the moral concepts.
1 See I.Ceterchi, I.Craiovan, Introducere in teoria generala a dreptului, „All Beck” Printing House,
2 See, in this sense, M.Kurst, J.Trinks, Manual de filozofie, „Humanitas” Printing House,
3 See I.Ceterchi, I.Craiovan, cited works, page 4-11
4 Ibidem
5 Translation done on Encarta Encyclopedia, Microsoft, 1998
6 See P.Hardot, Ce este filozofia antica?, „Politom” Printing House,
7 Translation done on Encarta Encyclopedia, Microsoft, 1998
9 Ibidem
10 Translation done on Encarta Encyclopedia, Microsoft, 1998
11 Ibidem
12 For details, see P.Hardot, cited works, page 27
13 See Ph.Malaurie, Antologia gindirii juridice, „Humanitas” Printing House,
14 Polis also represents a social-political institution unique for the antique world. The translation of the term polis as city – state, draws only partially and approximately the sense it had for Greeks. In fact a polis was a territorial area, with its city, lands and villages from around it; but, first of all, it was a community of religious origins, interests, traditions and creeds. In the whole Greek world there were over 200 such small autonomous and independent states – communities; see O.Drimba, Istoria culturii si civilizatiei, „Stiintifica si Enciclopedica” Printing House, Bucharest, 1984, I-st vol, page 536-539
15 See Ph.Malaurie, cited works, page 32
16 See M.Kurst, J.Trinks, cited works, page 189-191
17 Ibidem
18 Augustine talks about Christianity as a historical religion based on a unique historical event. In fact, in the vision of the theologist the whole history is a straight evolution with unique events: God the creator raised the world from nothing, Jesus is the saviour sent by God to save the peoples. History is the story of the salvation led by divinity, between the Creation and the Day of Judgement (eshaton), its dynamic being due to the fight between creed and lack of creed; for details, see M.Kurst, J.Trinks, cited works, page 229-230
19 See C.F.Potter, Fondatori de mari religii, „Prietenii cartii” Printing House, 1998, page 41-47
20 Ibidem, page 186
21 See Ph.Malaurie, cited works, page 34
22 See Ph.Malaurie, cited works, page 34
23 Ibidem
24 „Manikhaios” – Greek term deriving from Manes, the name of the wise Persian (216-276), founder of the cult. He declared himself as the last prophet from the succession including Zoroastru, Buddha and Jesus, whose revelations, as he considered, were included somehow in his doctrine (with important Gnostic influences). The cult presented a dualist vision on the universe that contains the laws of the good and of the evil, the first ones being led to light by God and the ones belonging to the second category, to darkness, by Satan. At the origins, the two were separated, but, as a result of the cosmogony, they mixed in a continuous struggle, the human race being the result and in the same time the copy, at the level of the microcosms, of this fight; translation by Encarta Encyclopedia, Microsoft, 1998
25 It had the title of „Doctor Eclasiae” representing the recognition as eminent theologian by the Church, due to the important contribution brought to the Christian doctrine, by a proclamation of the Pope or of the Ecumenical Council (translation by Encarta Encyclopedia, Microsoft, 1998).
26 See P.Hardot, cited works, page 271 - 273
27 See I.Craiovan, Introducere in filozofia dreptului, „All Beck” Printing House, 1998, page 29
28 See I.Craiovan, cited works, page 29
29 At the end of the 13-th century, the works of Aristotle became well-known in their Latin translation and accompanied by commentaries, through some thinkers belonging to the school led by Sigir Bracabat, known as Averroes; (…) the reconstruction of mediaeval philosophy isn’t possible without taking into consideration the Oriental moment, especially without Avicena and Averroes, as dominant attitudes. First of all, because they maintain vivid and develop Platoon’s tradition, especially the Aristotle one, then for what they bring new. They haven’t been only commenters but also registrators” – quotation belonging to G.Vladutescu, in O.Drimba, Istoria culturii si civilizatiei, „Vestal” Printing House, Bucharest, 1998, IV-th vol., page 480
30 Ibidem
31 See M.Kurst, J.Trinks, cited works, page 56
32 Ibidem, page 57
33 At the beginning of the 5-th century the Christian bishops were the most prominent personalities, except the official world, the authorities had to take into consideration; later on, when the Christian community became the great majority of the inhabitants of a town, the bishop practically became the most influent person of a region. More than that, the most important real estate owner was the Church, its large fortune counting lands, real estates, donations as well as the obligation of the agricultural producers to give to the Church, regularly, the tenth part of their products. The consistent incomes were also from taxes on goods selling, because even the monasteries had their weekly and annually fair. So, as for the financial power, the Church was among the most favoured institutions. The bishops used to have, inherited as a tradition, the power of judges (since 318 and since 333 their jurisdiction was recognized in civil causes, too) during the years the principle of the Pope’s absolute personal authority was built, in the matter of the dogma and the moral, the papacy having and exercising a supreme authority through decretali (answers given in the shape of a letter to problems of dogma and of moral, with the value of a rule for resembling cases). In spite of all these, compared to the German Empire the papacy had a subordinate position from the political point of view, so that in the second half of the 10-th century a compromise had to be done, „an
34 See for details C.F.Potter, Fondatori de mari religii, „Prietenii cartii” Printing House, 1998, page 240-241
35 Ibidem, page 242
36 Translation by Encarta Encyclopedia, Microsoft 1998
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