Decretalism

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The Decretum Gratiani (around 1140) summarized the ecclesiastical legal matter with reference to the authorities of the 4th to 11th centuries. Not every legal problem that arose in the 12th century could be solved with this. After the Gregorian reform in the 11th century, there was a centralization of church administration and jurisdiction. This led to inquiries to the Pope, which he answered with decretals . The canon schools soon began to interpret these decisions. From this came the decretalisics . In this way new church law ( ius novum ) came into being. It was a fusion of the legal system created by the decretists on the basis of the Decretum Gratiani with Roman law, which was increasingly received towards the end of the 12th century . Decretalism became a new branch of canon law , which placed the papal “ius novum” at the center of its analysis. All canonists after 1234 can therefore be called decretalists.

Under Pope Alexander III. (1159–1181) the number of decretals increased sharply. They were initially appended to the copies of the Decretum Gratiani as "extravagant" items , together with older legal sources . In the 1170s, more and more text collections were created, which increasingly placed their focus on the post-Gratian sources.

The Quinque Compilationes Antiquae deserve special mention from the early decretalisic .

  • The Compilatio prima of Bernhard von Pavia . His most important work was the Breviarium extravagantium , a collection of decretals that was created between 1189 and 1193. In its construction it became a model for the later collections of decretals. Although it was not officially approved (= approved), it was later used as a compilation during teaching . Between 1192 and 1198, Bernhard wrote a Summa decretalium , in which the legal matter was briefly summarized.
  • The Compilatio secunda was a compilation of older decretal law by the Welshman Johannes Galensis, who wrote it between 1210 and 1212 in Bologna.
  • The Compilatio tertia was commissioned by Innocent III. (1198–1216) compiled by Petrus Beneventanus († 1219/1220), subsequently approved by the Pope and sent to the University of Bologna with a papal bull .
  • The Compilatio quarta is a compilation written by the German canonist Johannes Teutonicus Zemeke around 1216.
  • The Compilatio quinta was written by one of the leading decretalists of the time, Tankred , and by Pope Honorius III. approved in 1226. In doing so, he prescribed schools and courts to use them.

The Quinque Compilationes Antiquae were soon glossed over, and some commentaries became the standard. The comments on the Compilatio prima by canonist Petrus Hispanus (in the 1190s) and by Vincentius Hispanus (written between 1210 and 1215) are known. The apparatus of Ricardus Anglicus for the Compilatio prima , which the latter wrote from his teaching activities between 1196 and 1198, the Glossa ordinaria des Tankred for the Compilatio prima and the apparatus of Jacobus de Albenga for the Compilatio quinta became important .

The Quinque Compilationes Antiquae were not the only collections used in science and practice, albeit the most influential. There were numerous other compilations from Bologna and other law schools, especially from the Anglo-Norman region. Every now and then they contradicted each other. Therefore, Pope Gregory IX instructed . (1227–1241) the Spanish canonist Raimund von Penyafort (around 1180–1275) with the constitution of a new collection of decretals with a profound reorganization of the material. On September 5, 1234, the Pope published the work with the bull Rex pacificus and made it compulsory for schools and courts. With this all previous collections lost their validity. The canonists called this work, which introduced classical decretalism, Liber decretalium extra decretum vagantium, or Liber Extra for short . The Liber Extra remained valid as the second part after the Decretum Gratiani in the Corpus Iuris Canonici until 1917. Further collections of decretals were added later: The Liber Sextus , the Clementinae , the Extravagantes Johannis XXII. and the Extravagant Communes . They finally formed the six-part Corpus Iuris Canonici .

This Liber Extra was soon also commented on. The Glossa ordinaria by Bernhard of Parma (Bernardus de Botone) for Liber Extra is known . He created four versions between 1234 and 1266. But other decretalists also created significant legal commentaries, such as Goffredus de Trano (Gottfried von Trani) his Summa super titulis decretalium , Pope Innocent IV (1243–1254) the Commentaria apparatus in V libros decretalium , Henricus de Segusio , called Hostiensis (around 1200 -1271), the Summa aurea , which is considered the most important decretalistic sum, as well as the Commentaria in primum (- quintum) decretalium librum for the Liber Extra , and finally Johannes Andreae (around 1270-1348) the Novella (or Commentaria ) in quinque Decretalium libros . He was the last and most famous decretalist of classical canon law.

Individual evidence

  1. So Hersperger. Van de Wouw names Johannes de Albenga as the author.

literature

  • Patrick Hersperger: Church, Magic and “Superstition”. Superstitio in canons of the 12th and 13th centuries. Research on ecclesiastical legal history and canon law. Volume 31. Böhlau, Cologne 2010. ISBN 978-3-412-20397-9 .
  • Hans van de Wouw: Decretalists, Decretalism. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages. Volume 3. Artemis, 1986, Col. 638-661.