The , also known as the or or simply as the , is a collection of Catholic 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 .
The Decretum Gratiani was used as the main source of law by canonists of the Catholic Church until the Decretals, promulgated by Pope Gregory IX in 1234, obtained legal force, after which it was the cornerstone of the , in force until 1917.
Overview Gratian, active in the first half of the 12th century, is believed to have been Bishop of Chiusi,Reali, Francesco (ed.), , 2009, pp. 63-73 and p. 244 has found and re-evaluated a Kalendarium of the Sienese Church owned by the Library of the Intronati of Siena (Ms FI2, f. 5v) in which, in Carolina minuscule writing with a date that at most can be placed in the mid-12th century, reads the following (after ): ; Reali observes that the text conforms to another reliable source of the 12th century, in which the author of the Decretum (who drafted the work in 1130) is referred to as (Robertus de Monte, Cronica, Bethman [ed.], MGH Scriptores VI, Hanover 1844, p. 490) and that other sources of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries also speak of Gratian as bishop or as bishop of Chiusi. probably a jurist of the ecclesiastical forum and a teacher, at the monastery of Saints Nabor and Felix (according to the thirteenth century Bolognese Odofredus Denariis) and a Camaldolese monk. Gratian composed the work he called , and others titled , more commonly known as the . A living text, the work was characterized by multiple editorial stages. Gratian's aim was to obviate the difficulties which beset the study and the forensic application of practical, external theology (), i.e., the study and the forensic use of canon law. In spite of its great reputation and wide diffusion, the has never been recognized by the Church as an official collection.
The so-called or vulgate version (an advanced editorial stage) of the is divided into three parts (, , ).
The first part is divided into 101 distinctions (), the first 20 of which form an introduction to the general principles of canon law (); the remainder constitutes a , relative to ecclesiastical persons and function. The second part contains 36 causes (), divided into questions (), and treat of ecclesiastical administration, procedural issues and marriage. 3 of 33 on penance () is treated separately and subdivided into 7 distinctions. The third part deals with sacramental and liturgical law and contains 5 distinctions.
Each distinction or question contains , or maxims of Gratian, and . Gratian himself raises questions and brings forward difficulties, which he answers by quoting , i. e. canons of councils, decretals of the popes, texts of the Scripture or of the Fathers. These are the ; the entire remaining portion, even the summaries of the canons and the chronological indications, are called the maxims or .
Many have been inserted in the by authors of a later date. These are the , so called from Paucapalea, the name of the principal commentator on the . The Roman revisers of the 16th century (1566–1582) corrected the text of the "Decree" and added many critical notes designated by the words .
Citing the The is cited by referring to the larger units of the distinction or the cause and question, and then the specific canon or dictum. For clarity, the distinctions of 33, 3 of the second part are referred to as (or ), while the distinctions of the third part are referred to as (or ). The Part is usually not included, as the citation form is different for each.
Citation styles for the have changed over time and can generally be categorised under the modern, obsolescent, and obsolete forms.
Modern form This form, common since the twentieth century, cites all units in Arabic numerals, from largest unit to smallest unit.
Distinctions are referenced by an uppercase "D.", Causes by an uppercase "C.", questions by a lowercase "q.", and canons by a lowercase "c.". Gratian's are referred to with a lowercase "d. a. c." (, for commentary preceding the canon) or "d. p. c." (, for commentary following the canon).
Examples:
[Part I] D. 23 c.7 [Part II] C. 15 q. 2 c. 4 [Part II] C. 23 q. 8 d. p. c. 25 [Part II, ] D. 3 de pen. c. 24 [Part III] D. 2 de cons. c. 82
Obsolescent form Commonly used between the seventeenth and early twentieth centuries, this form generally begins with a reference to the smallest unit in Arabic numerals, followed by the Distinction or Cause in Roman numerals and (if required) the question in Arabic numerals, e.g. "c. 5, C.3 q.1".
Obsolete form This is the form used by medieval and early modern writers, falling out of use after the eighteenth century. Major divisions () were cited with (usually Roman) numerals. Since the numbering of the 's capitula only became standard in the sixteenth century, canons were cited by their opening word(s). Two or more canons beginning with the same word/phrase might be distinguished with numbers, e.g. .
Examples (using the same references as above):
Early commentators might also refer to the first few canons by number (e.g. for the third canon of a distinction), or to the last few canons as (, that is, third to last), (or or , second to last), and () or (last).
Author
Gratian () was a canon lawyer from Etruria, probably working in the former feudal state of Matilda of Tuscany (mainly in Tuscany and Emilia region) as well as in Reims (1131), Rome, Bologna, Venice (1143) and Chiusi. He flourished in the second quarter of the twelfth century. He died on 10 August around the middle of the 12th century as bishop of Chiusi in Tuscany. Little else is known about him.
He is sometimes incorrectly referred to as Franciscus Gratianus, Johannes Gratian, or Giovanni Graziano. For a long time he was believed to have been born around 1100, at Ficulle in Umbria, based on a chronicle of illustrious men of the 14th century attributed to an exponent of the powerful Colonna family, who had possessions in Ficulle. He was said to have become a monk at Camaldoli and then taught at the monastery of St. Felix in Bologna and devoted his life to studying theology and canon law, but contemporary scholars do not attach credibility to these traditions.
Since the 11th century, some cities of central-northern Italy such as Arezzo, Pisa, Bologna had been the centre of the study of Roman law, after the was rediscovered in western Europe. In the second half of the 11th century and at the beginning of the 12th century Roman law was generally studied and applied only in the cities (seat of the diocese) in which there was an imperial Prefecture, where imperial and ecclesiastical jurists (and courts) coexisted (such as Pisa and Bologna), with mutual interference. However, from the first editorial stages of the it is clear that Gratian had little knowledge of Roman law and that he had a great sense of depth in the disputes dealt with in the ecclesiastical seats, especially in the appeal judgments dealt with in the Roman curia. Therefore, some scholars today exclude that he was trained in Justinian Roman law and that (at the beginning of his career) he worked mainly in certain cities (such as Arezzo, Pisa or Bologna) where Roman law was known and applied for years, it being plausible that he came from an episcopal city in which all jurisdiction, both civil and ecclesiastical, was dealt with by the only court present: the ecclesiastical one. Perhaps also for this reason he feels the need to create a legal work to be applied only in ecclesial courts and only for cases relating to canon law, putting an end to the mixture between civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions. It is no coincidence that Dante Alighieri writes that he helped "one and the other forum", that is, he separated the canonical jurisdiction from the civil one.Reali, Francesco, , in 30 (2020), 27–114 Gratian's work was an attempt, using early scholastic method, to reconcile 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:
He has long been acclaimed as (Latin: "Father of Canon Law"), a title he shares with his successor St. Raymond of Penyafort. Gratian was the father and the first teacher of the which he himself coined: the new canon law or . Many of his disciples have become highly renowned canonists.
Textual history The vulgate version of Gratian's collection was completed at some point after the Second Council of the Lateran of 1139, 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.Winroth (Cambridge 2004), 138
As late as 1997, scholars commonly set the date of completion at 1140, but this accuracy in dating is not possible after Anders Winroth's groundbreaking scholarship.Hartmann & Pennington, History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period, pg. 7. Winroth's research shows that the existed in two published recensions.Winroth, (Cambridge, 2004), 3
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.Winroth, (Cambridge, 2004), 146–174 However, Winroth's thesis of two Gratians remains controversial.See most recently Atria Larson, Master of Penance: Gratian and the Development of Penitential Thought and Law, ca. 1120-1215, Washington, DC: Catholic University Press, 2013, arguing for even greater complexity in the addition and adaptation of the text of the .
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, , 673 (=Sg), which some have argued contains the earliest known draft (Larrainzar's ) of the , but which other scholars have argued contains an abbreviation of the first recension expanded with texts taken from the second recension.Lehnherr, Titus, Titus "Ist die Handschrift 673 der St. Galler Stiftsbibliothek (Sg) der Entwurf zu Gratians Dekret?: Versuch einer Antwort aus Beobachtungen an D.31 und D.32" (unpublished paper) ; Anders Winroth, "Recent Work on the Making of Gratian's ", Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law, n.s. 26 (2004–2006): 1–29; John Wei, "A Reconsideration of St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek 673 (Sg) in light of the Sources of Distinctions 5–7 of the ", Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law, n.s. 27 (2007): 141–180.
Criticism During the Reformation, individuals such as Martin Luther strongly criticized the claims of papal primacy within the . One of Luther's chief concerns surrounded 40 (Chapter "") which reads:
Additional concerns about papal primacy in the context of 2 Thessalonians 2:4 were raised regarding Distinctio 96 chapter 7 which reads:
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 obtained the material not 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) it is now known that Gratian made use of a relatively-small number of collections in the composition of most of the :