ABSTRACT
Harold J. Berman's conviction that religion has been a fundamental and creative force in the development of Western law and what John Witte perceptively calls "the inner religiosity of law," struck a responsive chord among many reviewers. A few scholars did object that the emphasis on the canon law had done less than full justice to the contributions of the medieval civilians to the formation of the Western Legal Tradition. Accessible to non-specialists, definite in its convictions, and catholic in its coverage, the book had an impact on readers that more narrowly focused studies on European law did not have. The principle of proportionality was an important legal ideal at the time. The punishments inflicted for religious dissent are the most conspicuous and horrible examples of the ways in which the medieval Church embraced the rule of what was then regarded as proportionality in punishment.
