CANONICAL COLLECTIONS AND THE SYSTEMATIZATION OF MEDIEVAL CANON LAW IN THE LATIN WEST. FROM LATE ANTIQUITY TO THE DECRETALS OF GREGORY IX
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/theol.cath.latina.2026.LXXI.1.04Keywords:
medieval canon law, canonical collections, Decretum Gratiani, decretalists, Liber Extra, Latin WestAbstract
This article examines the formation and systematization of medieval canon law in the Latin West between Late Antiquity and the thirteenth century. It analyses the transmission of Roman legal traditions, the role of pre-Gratian canonical collections, and the emergence of episcopal and monastic centres as spaces of legal compilation. Particular attention is given to Gratian’s Decretum, the work of decretists and decretalists, and the gradual consolidation of papal decretal collections. The study argues that medieval canon law developed through compilation, interpretation, and juridical harmonisation, culminating in the Liber Extra of Gregory IX.
Article history: Received 03.05.2026; Revised 05.05.2026; Accepted 15.05.2026.
Available online: 01.07.2026. Available print: 31.07.2026.
References
Antonetti, Antonio, “Le istituzioni ecclesiastiche dell’Italia meridionale nel Duecento tra centralizzazione e resistenze”, Schola Salernitana. Annali 28 (2023) 219–255. Arquillière, Henri-Xavier, Sur la formation de la théocratie pontificale, Paris: E. Champion, 1925.
Calasso, Francesco, Medioevo del diritto, Milano: Giuffrè, 1954.
Congar, Yves, Droit ancien et structures ecclésiales, London: Variorum Reprints, 1982.
Cortese, Ennio, Il diritto nella storia medievale, Roma: Il Cigno Galileo Galilei Edizioni di Arte e Scienza, 1995.
Erdő, Péter, “Ecclesiastical Procedure in Eastern Central Europe”, in Wilfried Hartmann, Kenneth Pennington (eds.), The History of Courts and Procedure in Medieval Canon Law, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2016, 426–460.
Erdő, Péter, Storia della scienza del diritto canonico. Una introduzione, Roma: Pontificia Università Gregoriana, 1999.
Fournier, Paul, Histoire des collections canoniques en Occident depuis les Fausses Décrétales jusqu’au Décret de Gratien. Tome II: De la Réforme grégorienne au Décret de Gratien, Paris: Recueil Sirey, 1932.
Gaudemet, Jean, L’Église dans l’Empire romain (IVe–Ve siècles), Paris: Sirey, 1989. Gaudemet, Jean, La formation du droit canonique médiéval, London: Variorum Reprints, 1980.
Hoeflich, Michael H. – Grabher, Jasonne M., “The Establishment of Normative Legal Texts: The Beginnings of the Ius commune”, in Wilfried Hartmann, Kenneth Pennington (eds.), The History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period, 1140–1234. From Gratian to the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008, 1–20.
Kiss, Gergely, “Mutatis mutandis? Les mutations de la pensée juridictionnelle des prélats hongrois à la fin du XIIe et au début du XIIIe siècle”, Specimina Nova Pars Prima Sectio Mediaevalis 7 (2013), 71-101.
Les Bras, Gabriel, “Le droit romain au service de la domination pontificale”, Revue historique de droit français et étranger 26.4 (1949), 377-398.
Neil, Bronwen – Allen, Pauline, The Letters of Gelasius I (492–496): Pastor and Micro-Manager of the Church of Rome, Turnhout: Brepols, 2014.
Partner, Peter, The Lands of Saint Peter: The Papal State in the Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance, Berkeley–Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2022.
Pennington, Kenneth, “Decretal Collections 1190–1234”, Wilfried Hartmann, Kenneth Pennington (eds.), The History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period, 1140–1234. From Gratian to the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008, 293–317.
Pennington, Kenneth, “The Decretalists 1190–1234”, in Wilfried Hartmann, Kenneth Pennington (eds.), The History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period, 1140–1234. From Gratian to the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008, 211–245.
Pennington, Kenneth, “The French Recension of Compilatio Tertia”, Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 5 (1975) 53–71.
Pennington, Kenneth, The Prince and the Law, 1200–1600: Sovereignty and Rights in the Western Legal Tradition, Berkeley–Los Angeles–Oxford: University of California Press, 1993.
Radding, Charles M. – Ciaralli, Antonio, The Corpus Iuris Civilis in the Middle Ages: Manuscripts and Transmission from the Sixth Century to the Juristic Revival (Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 147), Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2007.
Richards, Jeffrey, The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages (476–752), Milton Park: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2014.
Rolker, Christof, Canon Law in the Age of Reforms (c. 1000 to c. 1150), Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2023.
Rusu, Cătălin, “New Interpretations Regarding Duo sunt of Pope Gelasius in Romanian Historiography”, Ephemeris Dacoromana. Serie nuova 21 (2019) 59–80.
Sessa, Kristina, The Formation of Papal Authority in Late Antique Italy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Ullmann, Walter, The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages: A Study in the Ideological Relation of Clerical to Lay Power, London: Methuen & Co., 1962.
Walter Pohl, Ian Wood, Helmut Reimitz (eds.), The Transformation of Frontiers: From Late Antiquity to the Carolingians, Leiden–Boston–Köln: Brill, 2001.
Watt, James A., “The Theory of Papal Monarchy in the Thirteenth Century: The Contribution of the Canonists”, Traditio 20 (1964) 179–317.
Weigand, Rudolf, “The Development of the Glossa ordinaria to Gratian’s Decretum”, in Wilfried Hartmann, Kenneth Pennington (eds.), The History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period, 1140–1234. From Gratian to the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008, 55–97.
Wood, Susan, The Proprietary Church in the Medieval West, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Theologia Catholica Latina
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
