It is said to have occupied the
compiler incessantly for twenty-five years. Immediately on its
completion in 1151 it was at once authorised by the Pope Eugenius III.
as the only text-book to be used in the public schools, and to govern
the decrees of the Ecclesiastical Courts. Hence its celebrity. Its
transcripts are very numerous, and it has been often printed. As to the
Sext and Clementines they are merely additional commentaries on
supplementary collections of decrees. Thus a new collection authorised
by Boniface VIII. is called the _sext_, _i.e._ the sixth book of the
Decretals. The Clementines were the constitutions of Clement V. Other
collections such as that of John XXII. are called Extravagantes.
[43] See Add. 15274, British Museum.
The most ancient MSS. of the Decretals bear the title of _Concordantia
discordantium Canonum_ (a "concordance of discordant decrees");
afterwards The Book of Decrees; lastly, The Decretals. It was
considered, however, by some, jurists and others, to be not so much a
concordance of discordant canons as a subjugation of the ancient canons
to the decrees of the Papacy, and as already stated, many of its decrees
were found to be false and fictitious. Nevertheless, it is by no means
an uncommon volume among the illuminators.
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