FOURNIER, PAUL-EUGÈNE-LOUIS. - Canonist and legal historian, b. at Calais on 26 Nov. 1853, d. at Paris on 13 May 1935. A qualified paleographer-archivist at the École des Chartes (1879), graduated in law at the University of Paris (1880), professor of Roman law at the University of Grenoble (1880-1914), of legal history and then of canon law at that of Paris (1914-35), corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Munich (1901) and of that of the Lincei of Rome (1924), member of the Académie des inscriptions (1911), doctor honoris causa of the Universities of Louvain (1911) and Oxford (1931), president of the Society for Legal History (1914).
A great exponent of the historical-legal culture of his country, he occupies a leading place among the most eminent modern scholars of the history of canon law. He devoted his studies in particular to the canonical sources of the darkest period, which runs from the compilation of the Pseudo-Isidore to the Decretum of Gratian and to canonistic literature up to the middle of the 13th century. The outcome of his research in this regard is of truly primary value and is enshrined in some important monographs, in numerous studies and articles in various journals of which he was a valued contributor and especially in his masterpiece: Histoire des collections canoniques en Occident depuis les femmes décrétales jusqu'au décret de Gratien (in collaboration with M. G. Le Bras, Paris 1931-32). Other principal works of his: Les officialités en moyen âge, étude sur l'organisation, la compétence et la procédure des tribunaux ecclésiastiques ordinaires en France de 1280 à 1338 (ibid. 1880); Le royaume d'Urles et de Vienne (1338-1378), étude sur la formation territoriale de la France dans l'est et le sud-est (ibid. 1891).
Bibliography3 works
Zaccaria da San Mauro