Contents and Description (§ 1).
Sources and Treatment (§ 2). Time and Place of Origin (§ 3). Motive, Tendency, and Authorship
(§4). History and Relation to other Forgeries (§ 5). V. Certain General Considerations.
The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals are certain fictitious letters ascribed to early popes, from Clement to Gregory the Great, incorporated in a ninth-century collection of canons purporting to have been made by " Isidore Mercator." Three other lawbooks of the same time and place are closely connected with these false decretals and are necessarily treated with them, viz.: the Pseudo-Isidorian recension of the Spanish collection of canons; the Capitula Angilramni; and the capitularies of Benedict Levita. The name " Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals " has been in use since the awakening of criticism in the sixteenth century, and Bernhard Eduard Simson in 1886 gave the fitting designation " Pseudo-Isidorian Forgeries " to the whole series. In the present article the collection of " Isidore Mercator " is referred to as the Pseudo-Isidoriana, its author (or authors; see V., below) as the Pseudo- Isidore. The Hispana is the Spanish collection of canons, the Hispana Gallica the form of it current in Gaul in the early Middle Ages (see II., below); the Dionysio-Hadriana is the edition of the collections of Dionysius Exiguus presented to Charlemagne by Pope Adrian I. in 774; the Quesnelliana is the collection published by Paschasius Quesnel {Ad S. Leonis Magni opera ii. appendix, Paris, 1675; see also Canon Law, II., 3, §§ 1, 3; 4, § 2).
I. The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals and Isidore Mercator: Seventy-five manuscripts of the Pseudo- Isidoriana are known, which differ widely one from another. They fall into five classes designated as Al, A2, A/B, B, and C. Class Al doubtless represents the oldest recension, although some scholars
have maintained the priority of A2;
i. Manu- its earliest manuscripts belong to the
scripts. ninth century, and its codices contain,
as a rule, the complete collection in three parts. Class A2 is a recension but little later than Al, from which it differs by omitting entirely the second part of the complete work (the Councils; see 2, below) and all of the Decretals after the first letters of Damasus (d. 384); most of the manuscripts of this class are characterized by a clumsy chapter-division of the Decretals. Class A/B, of which no manuscript earlier than the eleventh century is known, represents a combination of the form Al with the Hispana of Autun (the Hispana Gallica Augustodunensis; see II., below) and with the original Hispana; the text of the Decretals conforms more closely with the latter, while for the Councils a manuscript of the Augustodunensis has apparently been worked over in clumsy fashion and approximated to the Pseudo-Isidoriana. Class B, represented by five manuscripts dating from the middle of the twelfth century to the thir-
Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
teenth, and class C, of which the oldest manuscript belongs to the twelfth century, are recensions of A/B and B, showing transpositions, additions, and omissions.
The Pseudo-Isidore took as the basis of his work the Hispana Gallica Augustodunensis (see II., below), thus lessening the danger of detection, as collections of canons were commonly 2. Contents made by adding new matter to old, and De- and his forgeries were less evident scription. when incorporated with genuine material. As represented in manuscripts of the class Al, the work consists of a preface and three parts. The order of arrangement is historical, as in the Augustodunensis. The following table gives the contents in detail, with the character or source of the sections. The numbers in parentheses are dates, the page references are to Hinschius' edition; P = the Pseudo-Isidore; H, HG, HGA = the Hispana, Hispana Gallica, Hispana Gallica Augustodunensis; DH = the Dionysio-Hadriana; Q = the Quesnelliana.
Preface, pp. 17-20; by P.
I. Decretals from Clement to Melchiades (d. 314), pp. 20- 247.
1. Introductory, pp. 20-30.
a. Letter from Aurelius, bishop of Carthage, to
Damasus (366-384) asking for copies of decisions of all popes from Peter to Damasus, with the reply of the latter, pp. 20-21; forgeries by P.
b. Ordo de celebrando concilio, pp. 22-24; gen-
uine, from HG.
c. Table of contents to parts i. and ii., pp. 25—
26; nos. 1-32 by P, nos. 33-78 genuine, from HG.
d. Fifty " Apostolic Canons " (also in HGA
from DH) and a brief letter from Jerome to Damasus, pp. 26-30; both forgeries earlier than P; for the former, see Apostolic Constitutions and Canons, §§ 1, 4.
2. Sixty decretals representing all popes (thirty in
number) from Clement to Melchiades, pp. 30— 247; all forgeries, most of them by P, the few which he has borrowed (e.g., the two letters of Clement which open the series) interpolated by him. The Liber pontificalis was used as a historical guide and furnished some of the subjectmatter. II. Gouncils, pp. 247-444.
1. Introductory, pp. 247, 257.
a. De primitiva ecclesia et synodo Niccena, pp.
247-249 ; pseudo-Isidorian.
b. The " Donation of Constantine " (q.v.), pp.
249-254; forgery earlier than P.
c. Quo tempore actum sit Nicoenum concilium, p.
254; from HG.
d. Epistola vel prcefatio Nicceni concilii, pp.
254—257; composed in the fifth century, from Q.
e. Alia prcefatio ejusdem concilii metrice com-
posita, p. 257; in HGA from DH.
2. Canons of fifty-four synods — Greek to Chalcedon,
451 (including the canons of Sardica, forged probably in the fifth century), African, Gallic to the Third Aries, 524, and Spanish to the Thirteenth Toledo, 683, pp. 258-444; for the most part genuine = part i. of HG with some interpolations and additions. III. Decretals from Silvester (314-335) to Gregory II. (715- 731), pp. 444-754.
1. Introductory, pp. 444-448.
a. A brief preface, p. 444; from H.
b. Table of contents to part iii. pp. 445^148;
from no. 26 based on the table of HGA.
2. Decretals of thirty-three popes from Silvester to
Gregory II., pp. 449-754; in general = part ii. of HGA. Compared with H, fourteen apocryphal
and seven genuine insertions are found, viz.: Apocryphal: (1) pp. 449-451, the so-called " Constitution of Silvester," a forgery of the early sixth century, worked over by P; (2) pp. 451-498, twelve Pseudo-Isidorian forgeries from Marcus (336) to Liberius (352-366); (3) pp. 498-499, letter from Damasus to Jerome and Jerome's answer, forgeries, Pseudo-Isidorian and earlier than P respectively; (4) pp. 501- 508, letter of Archbishop Stephen and three African councils to Damasus and answer, Pseudo- Isidorian (in HGA); (5) pp. 509-515, Damasus De vana superstitione chorepiscoporum vitanda, pseudo-Isidorian (in HGA); (6) pp. 519-520, Damasus, Ad episcopos per Italiam constitutes, Pseudo-Isidorian; (7) pp. 525-527, two letters of Anastasius, by P; (8) pp. 561-565, letter of Sixtus III., by P; (9) pp. 628-629, decretal of Leo I., De privilegio chorepiscoporum, and Silverius' Damnatio Vigilii, earlier than P (the tract Cum de ordinationibus, pp. 622-625, is from HGA, worked over by P) ; (10) pp. 675- 684, acts of the fifth and sixth synods under Symmachus, by P; (11) pp. 694-709, two letters of John I., two of Felix IV., one each of Boniface II., John II., and Agapetus I., and two of Silverius, Pseudo-Isidorian; (12) p. 712, a seventh chapter added to the letter of Vigilius to Profuturus; (13) pp. 712-732, one letter each of Pelagius I., John III., and Benedict I., and three of Pelagius II., by P; (14) pp. 747- 753, letter of Felix, bishop of Messina, to Gregory I. and answer, found only in one manuscript of the class A2 and in those of class C, uncertain whether earlier or later than P, but in his manner and showing his tendencies. Genuine: (1) pp. 516-519, two decretals of Damasus, from the Historia tripartita of Cassiodorus; (2) pp. 533-544, seven writings of Innocent I., from Q; (3) pp. 565-580, fifteen writings of Leo I., from Q; (4) pp. 637-649, four letters of Gelasius I., from Q and DH; (5) pp. 657-664, the first three of the synods of Symmachus, from DH; the Liber apologeticus of Ennodius (d. 521) is inserted here (pp. 664-675) with a characteristic interpolation (p. 665), and, further, two letters of the same Ennodius, ascribed to Symmachus (pp. 684-686); (6) pp. 735-747, four letters of Gregory I., one from the Collectio Pauli, three from uncertain sources; (7) pp. 753-754, Gregory II. 's Roman synod of 721, from DH (in HGA).*
The falsity of the Pseudo-Isidore's fabrications is now admitted, being proved by incontestable internal evidence (e.g., anachronisms like the use of the Vulgate and the Breviarium Alaricianum — composed in 506 — in the decretals of the older popes), by investigations concerning the sources
* Hinschius' edition of the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals also contains the following documents which are not included by the author of the present article among either the genuine or the spurious portions: decretal of Damasus to Paulinus on the condemnation of certain heretics (pp. 499-501); three decretals of Siricius (pp. 520-525); four letters of Innocent I. (pp. 527-533); eighteen more letters of the same pope (pp. 544-553); two decretals of Zosimus (pp. 553-554); three decretals of Boniface I. and a reply from Honorius (pp. 554-556); three decretals of Celestine I. (pp. 556-561); thirty-six decretals of Leo I. with a rescript of Flavian, bishop of Constantinople, and a letter of Ravennius (pp. 580-627); another decretal of Leo I. (pp. 629- 639); three decretals of Hilary (pp. 630-632); one decretal of Simplicius and a letter of Acalius, bishop of Constantinople (pp. 632-633); three decretals of Felix III. (pp. 633- 635); Gelasius, De recipiendis et non recipiendis libris (pp. 635-637) ; two decretals of Gelasius (pp. 650-654) ; a letter of Anastasius II. to the Emperor Anastasius (pp. 654-657); a letter of Symmachus (p. 657); a decretal of Hormisdas and replies (pp. 686-694); decretal of, Vigilius to Profuturus (pp. 710-712); and three decretals of Gregory the Great (pp. 732-735).