DEUSDEDIT. - A native of Limousin, he was probably a Benedictine monk, a cardinal by 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.
For this purpose he composed his principal work, the Collectio canonum (1083-87). It contains 1,173 fragments, from which the privileged position of the Roman Church emerges; besides canons of general and particular councils, passages from the Fathers, and pontifical documents, it contains numerous texts of Roman law, drawn especially from the Autheuticum, the collection of Justinian’s Novels, then recently discovered.
Another of his works 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.
He was also erroneously credited with the authorship of the Dictatus Papae.