Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/751

 DECRETALS

671

DECRETALS

containing a decretum, or pontifical decision. (2) In a narrower sense it denotes a decision on a matter of dis- ciiiline. (3) In the strictest sense of the word, it means a rescript (rescriptum), i. e. an answer of the pojie when he has been appealed to or his advice has lii'cn sought on a matter of discipline. Papal decre- (ils, therefore, are not necessarily general laws of the

I lunch. But frequently the pope ordered the recipi- ,'nt of his letter to communicate the papal answer to thr ecclesiastical authorities of the district to which he l"lnnged; and it was their duty then to act in con- fnrniity with that decree when analogous ca.ses arose.

I I is generally stated that the most ancient decretal is the letter of Pope Saint Siricius (384-398) to Hime- nus, Bishop of Tarragona in Spain, dating from 385; liiit it would seem that the document of the fourth niitury known as "Canones Romanorum ad Gallos cpiscopos" is nothing else than an epistola decretalis of Ills predecessor. Pope Damasus (366-384), addressed to the bishops of Gaul (Babut, La plus ancienne d^cr^tale, I'liris, 1904). The decretals ought to be carefully dis- tinguished from the canons of the councils; from the • inxtolcedogmatkac. i. e. the pontifical documents touch- ing on Catholic doctrine; from the constitutioiies, or piiiitifical documents given ?)iotu proprw, that is, docu- n riits issvied by the pope without his being asked to

i. I so or consulted upon a subject. (4) Finally, under I li.- name decretals are known- certain collections, con- tiiTung especially, but not exclusively, pontifical de- c ivtals. These are the canonical collections of a later (lite than the "Decretum" of Gratian (about 1150). I'he commentators on these collections are n.amed de- (Titalists, in contradistinction to the decretists, or thiise who commented upon the "Decretum" of Gra- tiin. Eventually some of these collections received nllicial recognition; they form what is now known as the "Corpus Juris Canonici". An account will be niven here of the collections of decretals, but par- ticularly of those of Gregory IX.

II. The "Quinque Compilationes Antiqu.e De- cketalium". — The "Decretimi" of Gratian was con- sidered in the middle of the twelfth century as a corpus juris canonici, i. e. a code of the ecclesiastical laws then in force. As such, however, it wa.s incomplete; more- over, many new laws were made by succeeding popes; u hence the necessity of new collections (see Corpus .1 1 fus Canonici). Five of these collections exhibited 'h.iitifical legislation from the "Decretum" of Gra- tian to the pontificate of Gregory IX (1150-1227). riiese are known as the "Quinciue compilationes an- t"iUiE". On account of their importance they were made the text of canonical instruction at the Univer- -ity of Bologna, and, like the "Decretum" of Gratian, were glossed, i. e. notes bearing on the explanation
 * ind interpretation of the text were added to the manu-

scripts. The first collection, the "Breviarium extra- \ : 1 gantium ", or summary of the decretals not contained 111 the "Decretum" of Gratian {vagantes extra Decre- 'iiin), wius the work of Bernard of Pavia (q. v.) and .' IS compiled 1187-1191. It contains papal decretals ti. the pontificate of Clement III inclusive (1187- i r.tl). The compilation known a.s the third (Compi- 1 itio tertia), written however prior to the second col- I' ition (Compilatio secunda), contains the documents if the first twelve years of the pontificate of Innocent III SJanuary, 1198 — 7 January, 1210)which are of a Inter date than those of the second compilation, the litter containing especially the decretals of Clement III and Celestine III (1191-1198). The "Compilatio 'tia" Is the oldest official collection of the legislation ttie Roman Church; for it was compo.sed by Cardi- I Petrus Collivacinus of Benevento by order of Inno- iit III (1198-1216), by whom it was approved in the .11 "Devotioni vestrtp" of 28 December, 1210. I he second compilation, also called "Decretales imdise" or "Decretales intermediie", was the work of I [)rivate individual, the Englishman John of Wales

(de Walesio, Walensis, or Galensis). About 1216 an unknown writer formed the "Compilatio quarta", the fourth collection, containing the decretals of the pon- tificate of Innocent III which are of a later date than 7 January, 1210, and the canons of the Fourth Lateran Coimcil held in 1215. Finally, the fifth compilation is, like the third, an official code, compiled by order of Honorius III (1216-1227) and approved by this pope in the Bull "Novae causarum" (1226 or 1227). It must also be noted that several of these collections contain decretals anterior to the time of Gratian, but not inserted by him in the "Decretum". Bernard of Pavia divided his collection into five books arranged in titles and chapters. The first book treats of per- sons possessing jurisdiction (judex), the second of the civil legal processes (jtidiciwn), the third of clerics and regulars (ckrus), the fourth of marriage (connubium), the fifth of delinquencies and of criminal procedure (crimen). In the four other collections the same logi- cal division of the subject-matter was adopted. (For the text see Friedberg, Quinque compilationes an- tiqua>, Leipzig, 1882.)

III. The Decretals of Gregory IX.— Gregory IX, in 1230, ordered his chaplain and confessor, St. RajTuond of Peiiaforte (Pennafort), a Dominican, to form a new canonical collection destined to replace all former collections. It has been said that the pope by this measure wished especially to emphasize his power over the Universal Church. The papacy had, indeed, arrived at the zenith of its power. Moreover, a pope less favourably circumstanced would, perhaps, not have thought of so important a measure. Neverthe- less, the utility of a new collection was so evident that it is needless to seek other motives than those which the pope himself gives in the Bull "Rex pacificus" of 5 September, 1234, viz., the inconvenience of recurring to several collections containing decisions most diverse and sometimes contradictory, e.thibiting in some cases gaps and in others tedious length ; moreover, on several matters the legislation was uncertain.

St. Raymond executed the work in about four years, and followed in it the method of the aforesaid "Quinque compilationes antiqua;". He borrowed from them the order of the subject-matter, the division into five books, of the books into titles, and of the titles into chapters. Of the 1971 chapters which the Decretals of Gregory IX contain, 1771 are taken from the "Quinque compilationes antique", 191 are due to Gregory IX himself, 7 are taken from decretals of In- nocent III not inserted in the former collections, and 2 are of unknown origin. They are arranged, iis a gen- eral rule, according to the order of the ancient collec- tions, i. e. each title opens with the chapters of the first collection, followed by those of the second, and so on in regular order; then come those of Innocent III, and finally those of Gregory IX. Almost all the ru- brics, or headings of the titles, have also been bor- rowed from these collections, but several have been modified as regards detail. This method considerably lightened St. Raymond's task. However, he did more than simply compile the documents of former collec- tions. He left out 383 <iecisions, modified several others, omitted parts when he considered it i)rudent to do so, filled up the gaps, and, to render his collection complete and concordant, cleared uj) doubtful points of the ancient ecclesiastical law by adding some new decretals. He indicated by the words el infra lliejja.s- sages excised by him in the former collections. They are called partes decisa: The new compilation bore no special title, but was called "Decretales Gregorii IX" or .sometimes "Compilatio sexta", i. e. the sixth collec- tion with reference to the "Qtnnque compilationes an- tiqua;". It was also called "CoUectio seu liber ex- tra", i. e. the collection of the laws not contained (vagantes extra) in the "Decretum" of Gratian. Hence the custom of denoting this collection by the letter X (i. e. extra).