ABSTRACT
Niccolò dei Tedeschi, commonly known as Panormitanus, was a fifteenth-century Italian canonist. He was respected for many centuries after his death in 1445 as among the greatest expositors of the Church’s law. At his death he was Archbishop of Palermo, but he had earlier played a role in the development of the Conciliar movement. The chapter describes his activities, principally at the Council of Basel. His real strength, however, was as a pure lawyer. His skill in providing clear and authoritative expositions of the texts of the Corpus Iuris Canonici is illustrated in the chapter’s discussion of three examples. They illustrate the reasons why his Commentaria became the standard point of reference for canon lawyers throughout Europe. A final section of the chapter illustrates the respect in which he was held among English lawyers, even after the Protestant Reformation had cut the ties between the English Church and the papacy. For them, he was “the captain of the canonists.”
