This volume brings together the results of three trilateral research conferences held at Villa Vigoni between 2018 and 2020. It examines how the Church responded to crisis-related conflicts between 500 and approx. 1500 AD by using legal means. It examines internal church differences/disputes/controversies, ambivalent conflicts at the interface between internal and external order, and external disputes. Which legal response mechanisms were available to the Church? Was this arsenal expanded or restricted in the course of history? Did the Church respond to challenges flexibly or dogmatically, did it act consistently or dilatorily, radically or conciliatorily? Did the law have a motivating, promoting, irritating or even inhibiting effect on the reform process as a whole?
