Polysemy of the Term Complaint in Legal Doctrine – the Impact of Roman Law on Canon Law

Roman law has had a significant impact on the development of the both canon law and church legislation. Medieval canonists were fascinated by the Roman law. Thanks to the Roman law, the Church has obtained an auxiliary source of the canon law. During the Middle-Ages, even the division into canonists and secular lawyers disappeared. Academies were awarding degrees in both laws, i.e. the canon law and the Roman law. Many church legal institutions and canonical procedures are rooted in the Roman law. The purpose of this paper is to show the ambiguity of the term “complaint” in the legal doctrine, because the canon law derives from the conceptual apparatus of the Roman law.