DECRETALS. - This was the antonomastic name for the letters of the Pontiff containing the laying down of a norm either in a general manner or, more often, for the resolution of a particular question brought before his judgment.

A precise distinction from the point of view of law was represented by the classification of decretales iuris interpretativae, decretales iuris novi constitutivae and decretales hortatoriae.

The characteristic of the praeceptivae d. was identified, beginning with Pope Siricius (384-99), in the formula «volumus et mandamus» with which that type of d. was issued. But the same Pope Siricius recalls the «Generalia decreta» of his predecessor Liberius (352-66).

The earliest texts of the pontifical constitutions have not come down to us, and of the most ancient registers those of Gregory the Great, John VIII and Gregory VII have been preserved.

The practice of making collections of the d. of one or more pontiffs must have arisen early, out of the necessity of having at hand the norms established and in force. The known collections are numerous (v. also COLLEZIONI CANONICHE). The principal of these collections, which had particular currency in the era in which a true scientific doctrine of canon law took shape, are above all contained in the Quinque compilationes antiquae (v. COMPILATIONES [QUINQUE] ANTIQUAE), and in the official collections of the Liber extra of Gregory IX, of the Liber sextus of Boniface VIII, of the Extravagantes of John XXII and of the Extravagantes communes (v. CORPUS IURIS CANONICI).

Beginning in the 5th century, with the Collectio Dionysiana it became the practice to unite the epistolary d. with the canons of the councils, until the pontifical constitutions came to be collected separately as a distinct and prevailing source of the law of the Church. It should be noted that in addition to the regular collections of epistolary d., collections were also made in which the texts of such epistles turn out in part to be spurious or deliberately altered. - See plate LXXXV.

Plate LXXXV nirxemianmneocacqianmianmneopllmilycimnirxemianmne THE LIBER SEXTUS OF BONIFACE VIII. Frontispiece with miniature representing the Coronation of the Virgin (14th cent.) - Biblioteca Vaticana, cod. Pal. lat. 636.(fot. Biblioteca Vaticana)

DECRETALS - D. of Gregory IX with the Glossa Ordinaria of Bernard of Parma. Vatican Library, cod. Pal. lat. 629, f. 72ᵃ (14th cent.).(phot. Vatican Library)

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: H. Grisar, Über Sammlungen älterer Papstbriefe und deren theologische Verwertung, in Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, 12 (1888), pp. 487-532; C. Silva-Tarouca, Le antiche lettere dei papi e le loro edizioni (secc. V e VI), in Civ. Catt., 1921, 1, pp. 13-22 and 325-36; H. Getzeng, Stil und Form der ältesten Papstbriefe bis auf Leo den Grossen, Günzburg 1922; On the collections of false d. cf. most recently P. Fournier - G. Le Bras, Histoire des collections communes en Occident depuis les fausses Décretales jusqu'au Décret de Gratien, Paris 1931-32; A. Van Hove, Prolegomena, 2nd ed., Malines-Rome 1943, pp. 136-42.

Antonio Rota

@incollection{ec4_decretali, author = {Rota, Antonio}, title = {Decretali}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1281--1282}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/decretali} }

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Decretals

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