Decretum Gratiani Research Articles

La disolución del matrimonio a favor de la fe

The presented study begins with the analysis of the dissolution of the marriage as exception to the indissolubility principle. Then the biblical foundations of the Pauline privilege and his influence in the canonical tradition in Decretum Gratiani are studied. The Pontifical Decretals Quanto and Gaudemus of Pope Innocent III suppose a decisive contribution to this topic. The study continues analyzing the canonical sources up to the first codification regarding this matter. The essay concludes with the study of the Instruction Ut notum of Pope Paul VI, as well as with the analysis of the canonical regulation and the Normae of April 30, 2001.

Las "introducciones" del siglo XII al Decreto de Graciano

This paper analizes two introductions to Decretum Gratiani, that appear in some XII century manuscripts: In prima parte agitur (= IPA) and Hoc opus inscribitur (= HOI), Author offers a whole description of their manuscript tradition. Both introductions are studied in the context of the different stages Gratian's work passed through until Decretum vulgatum consolidation (after 1150). IPA seems be linked to the work making process. Therefore Jacqueline Rambud appraisal -IPA is an example of the first literary genres post Decretum- should be corrected. Appendix contain a critical edition of HOI (never published) an another partial and provisional edition of IPA.

Das Isaak-Opfer. Historisch-systematische Untersuchung zu Rationalität und Wandelbarkeit des Naturrechts in der mittelalterlichen Lehre vom natürlichen Gesetz (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 373 enervating. Someone who has such control of the sources, it seems to me, can occasionally stake out firmer ground than is his habit. Sixth and last: the cover. In a volume dealing with the tumultuous events at the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century, the choice of the famous Giotto fresco showing Francis and his friars receiving the Rule from Pope Innocent III, though undoubtedly attractive, is quite puzzling. Would not the manuscript illumination showing Celestine V creating the Poor Hermits out of the central Italian group of Spirituals (Ms. 1167, fol. 57v, Biblioteca nazionale Vittore Emmanuele, Rome) have been more to the point? Such decisions, however, are usually in the hands of editors, not authors. David Burr’s The Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century after Saint Francis stands as a towering achievement in a career already marked by outstanding scholarship and a series of important publications. Although it represents in many ways the crowning summary statement by a scholar who has spent decades mining the sources concerning these zealots of minorite poverty, one can only hope that he will continue to apply his skills to new projects and avenues of research in the years ahead. The Franciscan Institute MICHAEL F. CUSATO, O.F.M. Isabelle Mandrella. Das Isaak-Opfer. Historisch-systematische Untersuchung zu Rationalität und Wandelbarkeit des Naturrechts in der mittelalterlichen Lehre vom natürlichen Gesetz. (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters. Neue Folge. Band 62.) Münster: Aschendorff, 2002. Pages: 331. In the twelfth century, the Stoic idea of cosmic order and the law of the biblical God blended so well as to allow the decretum Gratiani (1141) to state: Ius naturale est quod in lege et evangelio continetur. In the medieval context, this led to difficulty with several biblical passages and first of all with God’s command to Abraham to kill his innocent son. Isabelle Mandrella has taken that difficulty as a test case for looking closely at the clarity and consistency of natural law thinking in the Middle Ages. BOOK REVIEWS 374 Mandrella sets up her study by describing the medieval understanding of the Bible. The scholastics understood the Bible as God’s word, spoken to his people through human authors. The Bible was inspired, its word inerrable. Consequently, God did command Abraham to sacrifice his son. The scholastics did not raise questions about God’s command when reading and explaining Genesis; there they praised Abraham’s faith. The difficulty arose when discoursing on natural law, for in that context, as the method went, they raised problems in arguing their case, and one of them was God’s unnatural command to Abraham. They had less difficulty with several other questionable commands of God, but they debated them as well. Given then that trouble will arise between natural law and God’s command to kill Isaac, Mandrella enters the history of the conflict with the twelfth-century theologians and decretists. Although the authority of the Fathers and of Augustine of Hippo in particular encouraged them to accept God’s action, the development of rationality led them to engage in more explanation. The theologians and decretists began distinguishing cases where exception could and could not be made. Mandrella’s story really begins with William of Auxerre. Through his reading of Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics, William distinguished ethics by reason from revealed morality. Reason prescribed action in its own right. This led William of Auxerre to raise the question about the possibility of dispensation from reason’s dictates, from natural law, given its seeming occurrence in the Bible. And so the distinctions begin. If an action is not structurally bad (not malum secundum se, but malum in se) and if the circumstances assume the action into a higher purpose, then William could see his way to explaining the way Israel robbed the Egyptians on setting out for the Promised Land and Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice Isaac. He was explaining the cases rationally, in the context of natural law, and not offering ad hoc excuses. After seeing where Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and Albertus Magnus stood on the question, Mandrella offers a...

The Corpus of the Miniatures in the Manuscripts of the Decretum Gratiani

The Corpus of the Miniatures in the Manuscripts of the Decretum Gratiani

AnIndex Verborum to Gratian'sDecretum: The reason to computerize it

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the reason to computerize an Index Verborum to Gratian's Decretum. An index or a concordance is always valuable to someone who knows how to make use of it. But for some texts, the index is more than simply useful; it is indispensable. Such is the case, in particular, for the Decretum Gratiani, the subject of a program of Centre de recherches et de documentation des institutions chretiennes (CERDIC) of the Universite des sciences humaines de Strasbourg. Because of the importance and the complexity of the work, the use of the computer to make a word list of the Decretum seemed not only to be indicated but indisputably necessary in the analysis of this exceptional medieval document, the Concordia discordantum canonum, better known under the name of the Decretum. It was written by Gratian while he was a professor at the University of Bologna, during the first third of the 13th century, probably by 1140. The Decretum contains about 4,000 texts, a larger total than is found in any earlier collection.

Raptus puellae as impediment to marriage in Decretum Gratiani

Marriage has always been a concern of the Church. The Christian doctrine gave matrimonium sacred meaning and at the same time fully endorsed the concept of mutual consent which originated from the Roman law. The act of abduction with its legal and ethical consequences was described in detail in the Decretum Gratiani. The punishment for the abductor was public penance and prohibition of marriage. If the fiancé was unwilling to take back the abducted bride he was allowed to marry another woman. However, if the fiancé and the bride wanted to get married afresh, they were to be both excommunicated until they had made their reparation. The Decretum Gratiani clearly indicated that the raptus puellae was an impediment which prevented marriage. The reason was the duress of abduction, which was contrasted with free will, voluntarily consent and the approval of father, parents or guardians.

Magister Gratian and the Problem of ‘Regnum’ and ‘Sacerdotium’

Shortly after its completion and circulation, the Decretum Gratiani became the foundation for a new canonical jurisprudence. Ironically, study of the work's history has suffered rather than benefited from its prominence in the history of law. Scholars have tried to reconstruct the text of the Decretum as it originally left the workroom of the Magister, but they have almost never tried to discover why — apart from scholarly motives — he undertook the enterprise. Instead, they have concentrated attention on his doctrine, or on the doctrine of the canons he cited, because their primary concern is to find the sources of later canonical theories. When they have searched for the sources of Gratian's own ideas, they have looked to earlier collections of the canons on which he relied. Gratian scholarship has thus been part of the history of ideas; concern for the Magister's place in the history of jurisprudence has kept historians from considering his place in the history of his times.

The Decretum Gratiani formerly in the C. W. Dyson Perrins Collection

The <i>Decretum Gratiani</i> formerly in the C. W. Dyson Perrins Collection