Atria A. Larson, Ph.D.
Associate professor of Medieval Christianity
Department of Theological Studies
Director, Center for Religious and Legal History; Associate director, Center for Medieval
and Renaissance Studies
Department of History
Office Hours
M 10:30-noon; R 11-12:30
Courses Taught
Seeking and Building Faith in the Middle Ages; Justice and Peace: The Legal Imagination in Christianity; Late Antique Latin: Theological Texts (graduate)
Education
Ph.D. in Medieval Studies (History, Theology, Philosophy), The Catholic University
of America, 2010
M.A. in Medieval Studies, Catholic University of America, 2006
B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies (History, Philosophy, English), Covenant College,
2003
Research Interests
History of canon law, history of penance, medieval manuscripts, and medieval biblical exegesis; pastoral care; theology of canon law; women and canon law; medieval intellectual, religious and institutional history
Publications and Media Placements
Edited with Justin M. Anderson, Thomas Aquinas and Medieval Canon Law (Washington DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2025).
With Thomas J. McSweeney, “‘The Laws of England, which Had Hitherto Been Used and
Approved’: Jurisdictional Understandings in the Thirteenth Century,” The Journal of Legal History 46, no. 1 (2025), 20-37.
With Clayton J. Killion, “The Exegetical World that Paved the Way for the Glossa ordinaria: A Study of Manuscripts, Glosses, and Commentaries on Matthew in the Twelfth Century,”
Traditio 78 (2023), 175-213.
”Glosses from Laon on the Gospel of Matthew Before the Glossa ordinaria: The Formation
of a Transregional Exegetical Community in the Mid-Twelfth Century,” Quaderni di storia religiosa medievale 25, no. 2 (2022), 237-62.
"De uera et falsa penitentia and Penitential Renunciation Canons in the Period from Gregory VII to Gratian and
the Collection of Nine Books,” in Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, Paris,
17 – 23 July 2016, ed. Florence Demoulin-Auzary, Nicolas Laurent-Bonne, Franck Roumy, with Anna Claire
Montealegre, Monumenta Iuris Canonici, Ser. C, vol. 16 (Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2022), 991-1003.
“Johannes de Deo’s Liber Poenitentiarius and the State of Kanonistik in the Mid-Thirteenth
Century,” Rivista internazionale di diritto comune 31 (2020): 149-74.
“Gratian, Original Sin, and the Sins of the Fathers: A Question of Sources and the
Influence of the School of Laon,” Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 36 (2019): 175-93.
“From Protections for miserabiles personae to Legal Privileges for International Travelers:
The Historical Development of Medieval Canon Law Regarding Pilgrims,” GLOSSAE: European Journal of Legal History 16 (2019): 166-86.
Edited with Andrea Massironi, The Fourth Lateran Council and the Development of Canon Law and the ius commune, Ecclesia militans (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018).
“Papal Councils and the Development of Lay Penance in the Long Twelfth Century,” Cristianesimo nella storia 39 (2018): 323-69.
“Lateran IV’s Decree on Confession, Gratian’s De penitentia, and Confession to One’s
sacerdos proprius: A Re-evaluation of Omnis utriusque in its Canonistic Context,” Catholic Historical Review 104:4 (2018): 415-37.
Edited with Keith Sisson, A Companion to the Medieval Papacy: Growth of an Ideology and Institution, Brill’s
Companions to the Christian Tradition 70 (Leiden: Brill, 2016).
Gratian’s Tractatus de penitentia: A New Latin Edition with English Translation (Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law 14; Washington, DC: Catholic University
of America Press, 2016).
Master of Penance: Gratian and the Development of Penitential Thought and Law in the
Twelfth Century (Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law 11; Washington, DC: Catholic University
of America Press, 2014).
“Archiepiscopal and Papal Involvement in Episcopal Elections: The Origins and Reception
of Lateran IV cc.23-24 from the Third Lateran Council to the Liber Sextus,” Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Kanonistische Abteilung 102 (2016), 73-98.
“Killing a Career: Homicide and the Development of Medieval Clerical Discipline,”
The Jurist 74:2 (2014): 247-70.
“Gratian’s De penitentia in Twelfth-Century Manuscripts,” Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 31 (2014): 57-110.
“The Reception of Gratian’s Tractatus de penitentia and the Relationship between Law
and Theology in the Second Half of the Twelfth Century,” Journal of Religious History 37:4 (2013): 457-73.
“An Abbreviatio of the First Recension of Gratian’s Decretum in Munich?,” Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 29 (2011-2012): 51-118.
With Richard Engl, “Ein unbeachtetes Zeugnis zum dritten Laterankonzil: Bernardo Maragones
Annales Pisani,” Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Kanonistische Abteilung 97 (2011): 357-68.
“The Influence of the School of Laon on Gratian: The Usage of the Glossa ordinaria
and Anselmian Sententie in De penitentia (Decretum C.33 q.3),” Mediaeval Studies 72 (2010): 197-244.
“Bestowing Pardon and Favor: Emperor Henry III’s Pardons in Context,” Viator 40:1 (2009): 41-69.
“Early Stages of Gratian’s Decretum and the Second Lateran Council: A Reconsideration,”
Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 27 (2007): 21-56.
“The Evolution of Gratian’s Tractatus de penitentia,” Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 26 (2004-2006): 59-123.
“Passive Instrument and Active Intercessor: Anselm’s View of Mary’s Role in Redemption,”
Cistercian Studies Quarterly 41:1 (Feb. 2006): 31-50."
Honors and Awards
- Digital Humanities Advancement Grant, Level III, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH HAA-296429; for project “T-PEN 3.0”), 2024
- Digital Humanities Advancement Grant, Level II, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH HAA-287674-22; for project “Gallery of Glosses”), 2022
- President’s Research Fund award, for project “Digitized Medieval Glosses on the Gospel of Matthew,” Office of the Vice President for Research, Saint Louis University, 2020
- Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society, 2019
- Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise, Forschungszentrum für Internationale und Interdisziplinäre Theologie, Universität Heidelberg, 2015
- National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, 2012
- Fulbright Award (University Student Category) in Munich, Germany, 2009
Professional Organizations and Associations
- Iuris Canonici Medii Aevi Consociatio (International Society of Medieval Canon Law)
- The Medieval Academy of America
- American Historical Association