ABSTRACT
As more and more detailed work is done on the processes and practices of the courts, schools and papal Curia, the image of the 'great lawyer pope' virtually single-handedly transforming the legal culture of the Curia and of Latin Christendom has been whittled away, but the status of Alexander III as one of the outstanding popes of the Middle Ages remains. His reputation among his contemporaries was built on the conciliar decrees issued at Tours (1163) and the Lateran (1179) and on the 700 or so legal letters (decretals) that passed into the tradition of the canon law. Although virtually no aspect of canon law was left untouched by Alexander's decretals, marriage has attracted the most attention, not only because more than 150 decretals or parts of his decretals related to aspects of matrimony but because their interpretation has raised questions about the consistency of his 'teaching' on the subject.
