This volume collects the contributions to an international conference held in March 2003 at the German Historical Institute in Rome. In the history of canon law, the late medieval period has been consistently neglected in comparison with the so-called classical epoch. Now historians and jurists want to cast new light on the later period. Dealing with individual institutions and legal subjects, the authors try to define general tendencies in canon law and relate them to the heuristic query reflected in the title of the volume. Special attention is given to the institutions of the Roman curia and its legal practice. The hitherto underestimated value for the history of canon law of the curial sources published by the German Historical Institute in Rome (»Repertorium Germanicum« and »Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum«) is emphasized.