DEUSDEDIT. — A native of Limousin, he was probably a Benedictine monk, already a cardinal in 1078, and died between 1097 and 1100. He was one of the strongest supporters of the Gregorian reform and exercised considerable influence on the movement aimed at securing the supremacy of the Roman pontiff, the restoration of celibacy, and the repression of simony.

To this end he composed his principal work, which is the Collectio canonum (1083-87). It contains 1173 fragments, from which the privileged position of the Roman Church emerges; besides canons of general and particular councils, passages from the Fathers and from pontifical documents, it contains numerous texts of Roman law, drawn especially from the Authenticum, the collection of Justinian's Novels, which had recently been discovered.

Another work of his is the Libellus contra invasores et symoniacos (1088-93), written in connection with the questions raised by the ordinations conferred by the antipope Clement III; the thesis he maintained, however, was not approved by the Council of Piacenza.

The authorship of the Dictatus Papae was also attributed to him, erroneously.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: A. van Hove, Prolegomena, 2nd ed., Malines-Rome 1945, pp. 233, 235, 264, 324, 325; C. Lefebre, s. v. in DDC, IV, coll. 1186-91.

Rodolfo Danieli

@incollection{ec4_deusdedit, author = {Danieli, Rodolfo}, title = {Deusdedit}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1499}, 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/deusdedit} }

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