Decretist

In the history of canon law, a decretist was a student and interpreter of the Decretum Gratiani . Like Gratian, the decretists sought to provide "a harmony of discordant canons" (concordia discordantium canonum), and they worked towards this through glosses (glossae) and summaries (summae) on Gratian. ^[1] They are contrasted with the decretalists, whose work primarily focused on papal decretals.

Early decretists of the Italian school include Paucapalea, a possible pupil of Gratian's; Rufinus, who wrote the Summa Decretorum; and Huguccio, who wrote the Summa Super Decreta, the most extensive decretist work. ^[1] There was also a French school of decretists starting with Stephen of Tournai. ^[2]

References

Citations

1. Jones 2011, p. 52.
2. Weigand 2008.

Sources

• Jones, Rhidian (2011). "Decretist". The Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England: A Handbook (2 ed.). T&T Clark. p. 52. doi:10.5040/9780567669735. ISBN   978-0-56766-973-5.
• Weigand, Rudolf (2008). "The Transmontane Decretists". In Hartmann, Wilfried; Pennington, Kenneth (eds.). The History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period, 1140-1234: from Gratian to the decretals of Pope Gregory IX. Catholic University of America Press. pp. 174–210. doi:10.2307/j.ctt2853s5.10. ISBN   978-0-8132-1491-7. JSTOR   j.ctt2853s5.10.