Around 1140 AD, an Italian monk named Gratian collected and ordered the great mass of canonical legislation which had built up over the centuries before. Prior to the codification of Canon Law in 1917, the Church’s law was considerably less neat and tidy – but Gratian’s work marked the beginning of a new period of order.
This work came to be known as Gratian’s Decree, or Decretum. In some ways similar to Denzinger’s work, Gratian’s Decretum was not an official work, but – as Bouscaren et al. put it – “it was so useful that it soon became the best-known book of canon law.” After Gratian’s death, it was supplemented with other collections, such as the Decretals of Gregory IX, and collections by Boniface VIII, John XXII and others.
The Decretum is far from being solely a book of legislation. It contains many theological texts from magisterial and patristic texts, as well as Gratian’s comments. Its influence is clear, when we consider that these theological texts are cited by theologians, with the references customarily assigned to them in the Decretum.
As already mentioned, the texts cited in the Decretum have their own intrinsic and theological authority, given that they are derived from Popes, saints and fathers. As such, the codification of Canon Law in 1917 – which abrogated various laws which it did not expressly contain – does not touch the theological reasoning and authority of various points cited in the Decretum, or the Decretum’s own witness to the tradition of the Church.
Causa XXIV is no exception. Doctor of the Church St Robert Bellarmine, as well as Cardinal Juan de Turrcremata OP and others, refer to this section of the Decretum, and in particular its canon Audivimus.
This canon, and the discussion as a whole, deals with the question of whether heretics can validly excommunicate non-Catholics.
However, recourse to this canon and the theological principles behind it comes at a cost.
Continue reading at the WM Review