Decretals () are letters of a pope that formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law of the Catholic Church.

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 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.

The term was first applied to those papal documents which Gratian had not inserted in his "Decree" (about 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.

Citations

Sources

Further reading

  • IntraText Edition of The Decretals of Gregory IX (latin)