Author: Rev. PhD. Traian Nojea (Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Oradea)
Keywords: medieval canon law, decretals, canonists, compilation, authority, receipt, case law
Abstract:
Before the twelfth century, Western canon law was a body of norms incorporated in various sources. Thus, canon law included conciliar canons, papal decrees, the writings of the Church Fathers and, to a lesser extent, Roman law. It did not include jurisprudence due to the lack of lawyers. In that period, there were no proper jurists to interpret the texts, to place a text in the context of other norms belonging to canon law or to highlight the contradictions of the texts from different historical periods. Gratian of Bologna will be the first great compiler of Western canon law, and his fundamental work, Decretum, will become both a manual of canon law and a tool of church courts, as well as the point of reference for the whole pleiad of decretists who will comment on his work. Starting from the 13th century, the attention of canonists will focus more on papal decrees. The first important representative of the period is Bernard of Pavia, the author of a compilation from which he will exclude many of the texts of the Decretum, entitled Breviarium extravagantium, focusing in particular on papal decrees. During the years 1209–1210, Pope Innocent III commissioned Petrus Beneventanus to compile a collection of his own decrees, a collection that will remain known in the history of canon law as the Compilatio tertia. This compilation would form the basis of the works of some of the leading canonists of the period, such as Laurentius Hispanus, Vincentius Hispanus, Johannes Teutonicus (author of the Compilatio quarta collection), Tancred of Lombardia (author of the Compilatio quinta collection), and the Dominican Raymond de Pennafort, author of the compilation Decretales Gregory Pope IX (1234). The end of the 13th century and the beginning of the following one will bring with it a development of Western canon law, important steps being taken in order to codify it. That is precisely why this period, which begins in 1298, will end in 1582, with the promulgation of the Corpus Juris Canonici. However, almost all popes of the time commissioned various canonists to publish their own papal decrees. This is the case of Pope Honorius III, who will delegate Tancred to compile a collection of his own decrees, but also of Pope Boniface VIII, who will appoint a special commission of canonists in this sense, the result being the famous Liber Sextus Decretalium, promulgated by the pope on March 3, 1298, to mention only two examples. The 14th century brings new collections of papal decrees. The first is that of Pope Clement V, which also includes the canons of the Council of Vienne; however, the collection will be promulgated by his successor, John XXII, on October 25, 1317, being known in specialized literature as Constitutiones Clementinae. This was the last collection of papal decrees formally promulgated by a sovereign pontiff in the medieval period. Also during this century, two private canonical collections appeared, Extravagantes JohannisXXII and Extravagantes communes. The first contained the decretals issued by Pope John XXII in the period 1317–1325, and the second, which evolved later, contained 74 decretals, epistles and constitutions of the last popes of the medieval period. The 15th century would represent something of a regression in canon law, the canonists of the time contenting themselves with merely commenting on the various earlier canonical collections and texts. The most important representative of the period was Panormitanus, the author of a commentary on the decrees of Pope Gregory IX. After teaching canon law at Siena, Bologna, and Florence, he attended the Council of Basel as a papal representative, upholding the authority of the sovereign pontiff over the authority of the synod.
Pages: 88-131