MARTINUS GOSIA

born c. 1100, Bologna died c. 1166 jurist, one of the four doctors of the Bologna Law School, and an important successor of Irnerius, although probably not his pupil. Martinus, who advocated a more liberal interpretation of the law than did his Bolognese contemporary Bulgarus, gave considerable weight to equity; critics called his approach the equity of the purse (aequitas bursalis). Like Bulgarus, he was an adherent of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and supported imperial claims at the Diet of Roncaglia (1158). Martinus, whose opinions were quoted in imperial and papal documents of his time, wrote a commentary on the Corpus Juris Civilis, or Code of Justinian.