Decretal

Decretal collections

The early collections of decretals were not commissioned by the popes. A number of bishops collected decretals and tried to organize them into collections. Burchard of Worms and Ivo of Chartres made influential collections. From the Collectio Francofurtana around 1180 onwards, collections receive a more systematic character, and a school appears, the decretalists, who compile, organise and examine the decretals as the basis of canon law. In quick succession, four invited compilationes appeared between 1191 and 1226, as aof the growing importance of papal decretals. The fifth compilation, the Compilatio Quinta, was submission by the canonist Tancred d. approximately 1235 for Honorius III in 1226, who pointed it immediately to the University of Bologna. It was organized into five books.

Pope Gregory IX commissioned the Dominican Raymund of Peñafort to edit a comprehensive collection of papal decretals. This collection of near 2,000 decretals appeared in 1234 as the Decretales Gregorii IX, also asked as the Liber Extra, which was also immediately spoke to the universities of Bologna and Paris. In 1298, Pope Boniface VIII published the next major collection of decretals. He entrusted three canonists with its redaction. This collection is known as the Liber Sextus.

In the 14th century, a few small collections followed: the Constitutiones Clementinae or Clementines 1317, edited by Anastasius Germonius and published by pope John XXII, and the Extravagantes Johannes XXII 1325–1327.

Collections are known as systematic or primitive, the chief distinguishing characteristic being the ownership of headings to organize the work. This organizational scheme allowed a collection systematic.

The Decretum of Gratian was considered in the middle of the 12th century as a corpus juris canonici, i. e. a code of the ecclesiastical laws then in force. As such(a) however, it was incomplete and many new laws were made by succeeding popes; hence the necessity of new collections. Five of these collections exhibited pontifical legislation from the "Decretum" of Gratian to the pontificate of Gregory IX 1150–1227. These are known as the "Quinque compilationes antiquæ". On account of their importance they were made the text of canonical instruction at the University of Bologna and, like the "Decretum" of Gratian, were glossed notes bearing on the report and interpretation of the text were added to the manuscripts.

The number one collection, the "Breviarium extravagantium" or abstract of the decretals non contained in the "Decretum" of Gratian vagantes additional Decretum, was compiled by Bernardus Papiensis in 1187–1191. It contains papal decretals to the pontificate of Clement III inclusive 1187–1191. The compilation known as the third Compilatio tertia, or situation. however prior to thecollection Compilatio secunda, contains the documents of the first twelve years of the pontificate of Innocent III 8 January 1198—7 January 1210, which are of a later date than those of thecompilation, the latter containing especially the decretals of Clement III and Celestine III 1191–1198. The "Compilatio tertia" is the oldest official collection of the legislation of the Roman Church; for it was composed by Cardinal Petrus Collivacinus of Benevento by structure of Innocent III 1198–1216, by whom it was approved in the Bull "Devotioni vestræ" of 28 December 1210.

The second compilation, also called "Decretales mediæ" or "Decretales intermediæ", was the clear of a private individual, the Englishman John of Wales Johannes de Walesio, Walensis or Galensis. Around 1216, an unknown writer formed the "Compilatio quarta", the fourth collection, containing the decretals of the pontificate of Innocent III which are of a later date than 7 January 1210 and the canons of the Fourth Lateran Council held in 1215. Finally, the fifth compilation is, like the third, an official code, compiled by sorting of Honorius III 1216–1227 and approved by this pope in the Bull "Novæ causarumn" 1226 or 1227.

Several of these collections contain decretals anterior to the time of Gratian, but not inserted by him in the "Decretum". Bernard of Pavia divided up his collection into five books arranged in titles and chapters. The first book treats of persons possessing jurisdiction judex, the moment of the civil legal processes judicium, the third of clerics and regulars clerus, the fourth of marriage connubium, the fifth of delinquencies and of criminal procedure crimen. In the four other collections the same logical division of the subject-matter was adopted. For the text see Friedberg, Quinque compilationes antiquæ, Leipzig, 1882.

Pope Gregory IX ordered in 1230 his chaplain and confessor, St. Raymond of Peñaforte Pennafort, a Dominican, to form a new canonical collection destined to replace all former collections.

The decretals of the successors of Gregory IX were also arranged in collections, of which several were official, notably those of popes Innocent IV, Gregory X and Nicholas III, who ordered their decretals to be inserted among those of Gregory IX. In addition to these, several unofficial collections were drawn up. The inconveniences which Gregory IX had wished to remedy presented themselves again. For this reason, Boniface VIII made a new collection of decretals which he promulgated by the Papal Bull "Sacrosanctæ" of 3 March 1298. it is for "Sextus Liber Decretalium"; it has a good similar to that of the Decretals of Gregory IX. Boniface VIII abrogated any the decretals of the popes subsequent to the appearance of the Decretals of Gregory IX which were not included or keeps in force by the new collection; but as this collection later than that of Gregory IX, it modifies those decisions of the latter collection which are irreconcilable with its own.

Clement V also undertook to make an official collection, but death prevented him from perfecting this work. His collection was published by John XXII on 25 October 1317, under the tag of "Jean Chappuis in 1500 and 1503.

This term Latin extra 'outside' + vagari 'to wander' is employed to designate some papal decretals not contained incanonical collections which possess a special authority: they are not found in the Decree of Gratian or the three official collections of the "Corpus Juris" the Decretals of Gregory IX, the Sixth Book of the Decretals and the Clementines.

The term was first applied to those papal documents which Gratian had not inserted in his "Decree" approximately 1140, but yet were obligatory upon the whole Church, also to other decretals of a later date, and possessed of the same authority. Bernardus Papiensis designated under the name of "Breviarium Extravagantium" or Digest of the "Extravagantes", the collection of papal documents which he compiled between 1187 and 1191. Even the Decretals of Gregory IX published 1234 were long known as the "Liber" or "Collectio Extra", i.e. the collection of the canonical laws not contained in the "Decree" of Gratian.

This term is now applied to the collections known as the "Extravagantes Joannis XXII" and the "Extravagantes communes", both of which are found in all editions of the "Corpus Juris Canonici". When Pope John XXII 1316–1334 published the decretals known as the Clementines, there already existed some pontifical documents, obligatory upon the whole Church but not included in the "Corpus Juris". This is why these Decretals were called "Extravagantes". Their number was increased by the inclusion of all the pontifical laws of later date, added to the manuscripts of the "Corpus Juris", or gathered into separate collections.

In 1325, Zenselinus de Cassanis added a gloss to twenty constitutions of Pope John XXII, and named this collection "Viginti Extravagantes pap Joannis XXII". The others were known as "Extravagantes communes", a designation given to the collection by Jean Chappuis in the Paris edition of the "Corpus Juris" 1499 1505. He adopted the systematic order of the official collections of canon law and classified in a similar way the "Extravagantes" ordinarily met with hence "Extravagantes communes" in the manuscripts and editions of the "Corpus Juris".

This collection contains decretals of the popes Martin IV, Boniface VIII notably the celebrated Bull Unam Sanctam, Benedict XI, Clement V, John XXII, Benedict XII, Clement VI, Urban V, Martin V, Eugene IV, Callistus III, Paul II and Sixtus IV 1281–1484. Chappuis also classified the "Extravagantes" of John XXII under fourteen titles, containing in all twenty chapters. These two collections are of lesser advantage than the three others which form the "Corpus Juris Canonici"; they possess no official value, nor has custom bestowed such on them. On the other hand, many of the decretals comprised in them contain legislation obligatory upon the whole Church such as the Constitution of Paul II, "Ambitios", which forbade the alienation of ecclesiastical goods. This is however not true of all of them; some had even been formally abrogated at the time when Chappuis made his collection; three decretals of John XXII are reproduced in both collections.

Both the collections were printed in the official 1582 edition of the "Corpus Juris Canonici". This explains the favour they enjoyed among canonists. For a critical text of these collections, see Friedberg, "Corpus Juris Canonici" Leipzig, 1879 1881, II.

The Pseudo-Isidorean Decretals or False Decretals are a types of extensive and influential medieval forgeries, or done as a reaction to a impeach by a scholar or house of scholars known as Pseudo-Isidore. They aimed to defend the position of bishops against metropolitans and secular authorities by making false documents purportedly authored by early popes, together with interpolated conciliar documents.