Decretal

Decretals ( la, litterae decretales) are letters of a pope that formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law of the Catholic Church.McGurk. ''Dictionary of Medieval Terms''. p. 10

They are generally given in answer to consultations but are sometimes given due to the initiative of the pope himself. These furnish, with the canons of the councils, the chief source of the legislation of the Church, and formed the greater part of the ''Corpus Iuris Canonici'' before they were formally replaced by the ''Codex Iuris Canonici'' of 1917. However, Cardinal Pietro Gasparri led the papal commission for the revision of canon law and later on published a guide to the ''fontes'' (sources) used in the 1917 code. Many canons in this code can easily be retraced in their relationship to and dependency on medieval decretals as well as Roman law.

In themselves, the medieval decretals form a very special source which throws light on medieval conflicts and the approaches to their solution. They are sometimes concerned with very important issues touching on many aspects of medieval life, for example: marriage or legal procedure.

Definition and early history

In a wider sense, the Latin term ''decretalis'' (in full: ''epistola decretalis'') signifies a pontifical letter containing a decretum, or pontifical decision.

In a narrower sense, it denotes a decision on a matter of discipline.

In the strictest sense of the word, it means a papal rescript (''rescriptum''), an answer of the pope when he has been appealed to or his advice has been sought on a matter of discipline.

Papal decretals are therefore not necessarily general laws of the Church, but frequently the pope ordered the recipient of his letter to communicate the papal answer to the ecclesiastical authorities of the district to which he belonged; and it was their duty then to act in conformity with that decree when analogous cases arose. It is generally stated that the most ancient decretal is the letter of Pope Saint Siricius (384–398) to Himerius, Bishop of Tarragona in Spain, dating from 385; but it would seem that the document of the fourth century known as ''Canones Romanorum ad Gallos episcopos'' is simply an ''epistola decretalis'' of his predecessor, Pope Damasus (366–384), addressed to the bishops of Gaul (Babut. ''La plus ancienne décrétale''. Paris, 1904). The decretals ought to be carefully distinguished from the canons of the councils; from the '' epistol dogmatic'' (the pontifical documents touching on Catholic doctrine), from the ''constitutiones'', or pontifical documents given ''motu proprio'' (documents issued by the pope without being asked or being consulted upon a subject).

Finally, under the name "decretals" are known certain collections, containing especially, but not exclusively, pontifical decretals. These are the canonical collections of a later date than the ''Decretum'' of Gratian (about 1150). The commentators on these collections are named ''decretalists'', in contradistinction to the '' decretists'', or those who commented upon the "Decretum" of Gratian. Eventually some of these collections received official recognition; they form what is now known as the "''Corpus Juris Canonici''". An account follows of the collections of decretals, particularly of those of Pope Gregory IX.

Decretals are known by the first two Latin words that begin the letter, called the incipit.

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 get a more systematic character, and a school appears, the decretalists, who compile, organise and study the decretals as the basis of canon law. In quick succession, four so-called ''compilationes'' appeared between 1191 and 1226, as a sign of the growing importance of papal decretals. The fifth compilation, the ''Compilatio Quinta'', was made by the canonist Tancred (d. about 1235) for Honorius III in 1226, who sent 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 nearly 2,000 decretals appeared in 1234 as the '' Decretales Gregorii IX'', also known as the ''Liber Extra'', which was also immediately sent 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 use of headings to organize the work. This organizational scheme makes a collection systematic.

''Quinque Compilationes Antiquae Decretalium''

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 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 explanation and interpretation of the text were added to the manuscripts).

The first collection, the "Breviarium extravagantium" or summary of the decretals not contained in the "Decretum" of Gratian (''vagantes extra 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''), written however prior to the second collection (''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 the second compilation, 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 order 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 work 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 order 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 his collection into five books arranged in titles and chapters. The first book treats of persons possessing jurisdiction (''judex''), the second 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.)

''Decretales Gregorii IX''

Pope Gregory IX ordered in 1230 his chaplain and confessor

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