Decretum Gratiani

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The Decretum Gratiani or Concordia discordantium canonum (in some manuscripts Concordantia discordantium canonum) is a collection of Canon law compiled and written in the 12th century as a legal textbook by the jurist known as Gratian. It forms the first part of the collection of six legal texts, which together became known as the Corpus Juris Canonici. It retained legal force in the Roman Catholic Church until Pentecost 1918, when a revised Code of Canon Law (Codex Iuris Canonici) promulgated by Pope Benedict XV on 27 May 1917 obtained the Force of Law.

Author

Gratian was a canon lawyer from Bologna. He flourished in the mid 12th century. Little else is known about his biography. He is sometimes incorrectly referred to as Franciscus Gratianus, Johannes Gratianus, or Giovanni Graziano. For a long time he was believed to have been born at the end of the 11th century, at Chiusi in Tuscany. He was said to have become a monk at Camaldoli and then he taught at the monastery of St. Felix in Bologna and devoted his life to studying canon law, but contemporary scholarship does not attach credibility to these traditions. Since the 11th century, Bologna had been the centre of the study of canon law, as well as of civil law, after the Corpus Juris Civilis was rediscovered in western Europe. Gratian's work was an attempt, using early scholastic method, to solve seemingly contradictory canons from previous centuries. Gratian quoted a great number of authorities, including the Bible, papal and conciliar legislation, church fathers such as Augustine of Hippo, and secular law in his efforts to reconcile the canons. Gratian found a place in Dante's Paradise among the doctors of the Church, and he was long acclaimed as "Father of Canon law", a title he shares with his successor Raymond of Penyafort.

Textual history

The vulgate version of Gratian's collection was completed at some point after the Second Lateran Council, which it quotes. Research by Anders Winroth established that some manuscripts of an early version of Gratian's text, which differs considerably from the mainstream textual tradition, have survived. With later commentaries and supplements, the work was incorporated into the Corpus Juris Canonici. The Decretum quickly became the standard text book for students of canon law throughout Europe, but it never received any formal official recognition by the papacy. Only the Codex Iuris Canonici of 1917 put it out of use.

Research by Anders Winroth shows that the Decretum existed in two published recensions. The first dates to some time after 1139, while the second dates to 1150 at the latest. There are several major differences between the two recensions:

• The first recension is a more coherent and analytical work.
• The second recension places a much greater emphasis on papal primacy and power.
• The second recension includes Roman law extracts taken directly from the Corpus Juris Civilis, whereas the first recension does not demonstrate substantial familiarity with Roman jurisprudence.

These differences led Winroth to conclude that Roman law was not as far developed by 1140 as scholars had previously thought. He has also argued that the second recension was due not to the original author of the first recension (whom he calls Gratian 1), but rather another jurist versed in Roman law. However, Winroth's thesis of two Gratians remains controversial.^{[citation needed]}

An illustration from a 13th-century manuscript of the work.

This field of inquiry is hampered by ignorance of the compiler's identity and the existence of manuscripts with abbreviated versions of the text or variant versions not represented by Winroth's two recensions. One of these is the manuscript St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, 673 (=Sg), which some have argued contains the earliest known version (borrador) of the Decretum, but which other scholars have argued contains an abbreviation of the first recension expanded with texts taken from the second recension.

Gratian's sources

Gratian's sources were Roman law, the Bible, the writings of (or attributed to) the Church Fathers, papal decretals, the acts of church councils and synods. In most cases, Gratian did not obtain this material from a direct reading of the sources, but rather through intermediate collections. Thanks to the research of modern scholars - in particular, Charles Munier, Titus Lenherr, and Peter Landau - we now know that Gratian made use of a relatively small number of collections in the composition of most of the Decretum, these being:

• Anselm (II) of Lucca’s canonical collection, originally compiled around 1083 and existing in four main recensions: A, B, Bb, and C. Peter Landau suggests that Gratian probably employed a manuscript containing an expanded form of recension A which he calls recension A’;
• the Collectio tripartita attributed to Ivo of Chartres, usually thought to date to 1095;
• the Panormia of Ivo of Chartres, also usually dated to 1095, although several scholars have argued for a later date and some even question Ivo's authorship;
• Gregory of St. Grisogono's Polycarpus, completed some time after 1111;
• the Collection in Three Books, composed some time between 1111 and 1139, though dated by some to around 1123;
• the Glossa ordinaria to the Bible.

Other sources are known to have been used in the composition of particular sections of the Decretum:

• Isidore of Seville's Etymologies for DD. 1-9 (the so-called Treatise on Laws);
• Alger of Liège's Liber de misericordia et iustitia for C. 1;
• the Sententiae magistri A. for the De penitentia and some other sections.

Effect

Gratian himself named his work Concordia Discordantium Canonum - "Concord of Discordant Canons." The name is fitting: Gratian tried to harmonize apparently contradictory canons with each other, by discussing different interpretations and deciding on a solution. This dialectical approach allowed for other law professors to work with the Decretum and to develop their own solutions and commentaries. These legalists are known as the decretists.

These commentaries were called glosses. Editions printed in the 15th, 16th or 17th centuries frequently included the glosses along with the text. Collections of glosses were called "gloss apparatus" or Lectura in Decretum (see also glossator). Systematic commentaries were called Summae. Some of these Summae were soon in circulation as well and obtained the same level of fame as the Decretum itself. Early commentators included Paucapalea and Magister Rolandus.

The most important commentators were probably Rufin of Bologna (died before 1192) and Huguccio (died 1210). Less well-known was the commentary of Simon of Bisignano, which consisted of the Glosses on the Decretum and the Summa Simonis.

References

• Landau, Peter. "Gratians Arbeitsplan." In Iuri canonico promovendo: Festschrift für Heribert Schmitz zum 65. Geburtstag. Regensburg: F. Pustet, 1994. pp. 691-707.
• Landau, Peter. "Neue Forschungen zu vorgratianischen Kanonessammlungen und den Quellen des gratianischen Dekrets." Ius Commune 11 (1984): 1-29. Reprinted in idem. Kanones und Dekretalen. pp. 177*-205*
• Landau, Peter. "Quellen und Bedeutung des gratianischen Dekrets," Studia et Documenta Historiae et Juris 52 (1986): 218-235. Reprinted in idem. Kanones und Dekretalen. pp. 207*-224*.
• Lenherr, Titus. Die Exkommunikations- und Depositionsgewalt der Häretiker bei Gratian und den Dekretisten bis zur Glossa ordinaria des Johannes Teutonicus. St. Ottilien: EOS Verlag, 1987.
• Munier, Charles. Les sources patristiques du droit de l’église du VIIIe au XIIIe siècle. Mulhouse 1957.
• Noonan, John T. "Gratian slept here: the changing identity of the father of the systematic study of canon law." Traditio 35 (1979), 145-172.
• Winroth, Anders. The Making of Gratian's Decretum. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Winroth, Anders. "Recent Work on the Making of Gratian's Decretum," Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 26 (2008).

External links

1. Full Latin text from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
2. Otto Vervaart's introduction to Canon Law
3. Domus Gratiani
4. The Stephan Kuttner Institute of Medieval Canon Law in Munich