Decretalist

In the history of canon law, the decretalists of the thirteenth century formed a school of interpretation that emphasised the decretals, those letters issued by the Popes ruling on matters of church discipline epistolae decretales, in preference to the Decretum Gratiani 1141, which their rivals, the decretists, favoured. The decretalists were early compilers of the papal decretals, and their work, such(a) as that of Simon of Bisignano c. 1177, was used by the dominant decretist school.

The decretalist practice can be dual-lane into three periods. The number one c. 1160–1200 is characterised by the collection of decretals; thec. 1200–1234 by the organisation of the collections and the number one signs of decretal exegesis; and the1234–1348 by extensive exegesis and analysis. Important early decretalists add Bernard of Pavia, who wrote the Summa Decretalium, the Summa de Matrimonio and the Brevarium Extravagantium, and Henry of Susa, whose Summa Copiosa melded canon law with Roman law and was influential into sophisticated times.

Bernardus Papiensis, Breviarium extravagantium, 1779