766 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
sions, the chief of which were, two books of synodal cases by Regino d. 915, the collections of Burchard, bishop of Worms d. 1025, Anselm of Lucca d. 1086, Cardinal Deusdedit about 1087, and Ivo of Chartres d. 1117. * The pseudo- Isidorian decretals also belong to this class and they were much used, especially by Burchard.
The work of Gratian superseded these earlier compilations, and it enjoys the honor of being the monumental work on canon law. Gratian, a Camaldulensian monk, and an Italian by birth, taught at the convent of St. Felix, Bologna, at the same time that Irnerius was teaching civil law in the same city. No details of his life have been handed down. His biography is his great compilation which was made about 1140-1150. Its original title, A Concordance of Differing Canons, concordantia canonum diseordantium, has given way to the simple title, Decretum, the Book of Decrees. The work was a legal encyclopedia, and at once became the manual in its department, as the /Sentences of the Lombard, Gratian's contemporary, became the manual of theology.2 This recog nition was not due to formal, papal, or synodal sanction, for it never received any. It was issued again and again by learned commentators, the first being one of Gratian's pupils, Paucapalea. These editors and commentators were called Sum mists or Glossarists. The official Roman edition was prepared by a papal commission of thirty-five members and issued by Gregory XIII. in 1582. Gregory declared the text to be forever authoritative, but he did not pronounce upon the contents of Gratian's work.3
Gratian's aim was to produce a work in which all real or apparent contradictions between customs and regulations in vogue in the Church should be removed or explained.
1 For full list see Friedberg, p. 126; Schulte, I. 43 sqq.; Hergenrother, p. 179.
2 Peter the Lombard drew heavily from Gratian, especially in the fourth book of his Sentences, where he reproduced many of Gratian's distinctiones entire. See Baltzer, D. Sentenzen des P. Lombardus, pp. 10 sq., etc.
3 Perpetuo integrum et incorruptum conservetur. See Schulte's remarks on Gratian's influence. I. 69-71.
§ 122. THE CANON LAW. 767
This he secured by exclusion and by comments, called the dicta Gratiani, sayings of Gratian. The work is divided into three parts. The first, in one hundred and one sections or distinctiones, treats of the sources of canon law, councils and the mode of their convention, the authority of decretals, the election of the Roman pontiff, the election and con secration of bishops, the papal prerogative, papal legates, the ordination of the clergy, clerical celibacy, and kin dred topics. The second, in thirty-six sections or causce, discusses different questions of procedure, such as the ordi nation and trial of bishops and the lower clergy, excom munication, simony, clerical and church property, marriage, heresy, magic, and penance. The third part is devoted to the sacraments of the eucharist and baptism and the consecration of churches. The scholastic method is pursued. A statement is made and objections, if any, are then formally refuted by citation of synodal acts and the testimony of the Fathers, popes, and other churchmen. The first distinction opens with the statement that the human race is governed by two principles, natural law arid customs. Then a number of questions are propounded such as what is law, what are customs, what kinds of law there are, what is natural law, civil law, and the law of nations?
Gratian's volume was soon found to require supplement. The two centuries following its appearance were most fruit ful in papal decrees, especially in the pontificates of Alex ander III., Innocent III., and Gregory IX. These centuries also witnessed the Lateran and other important councils. The deliverances of popes and synods, made subsequently to the age of Gratian, were called extravagantes or fugi tives.1 Five compilations, called "the old compilations/* were made from 1191 to 1226.2 The third of these, issued by authority of Innocent III. and containing his decretals,
1 Quia extra Decretum Gratiani vagabantur.
2 Friedberg's ed., Quinque compilationes antiques, Leip., 1882. The first, made by Bernard of Pavia, 1191 in his Breviarium extravagantium, dis tributes the materials under five heads, — judge, sentence, clergy, marriage, crime.