Collectio Vetus Gallica

The Collectio Vetus Gallica (also known as Collectio Codicis Andegavensis in the older literature) is a major systematic arranged collection compiled in the sixth or seventh century in Gaul. It belongs to a number of chronologically arranged collections compiled in Gaul in the sixth and seventh centuries, particularly in the south – at Arles, in the Rhône Valley and at Lyon. Of major significance is their transmission of Gallic councils. The texts of the Gallic canons in two of these collections, the Collectio Lugdunensis and the Collectio Albigensis, both compiled in the mid 6th century and perhaps both at Arles, are closely related to what must have been a source for the Vetus Gallica

In 1975 Hubert Mordek edited this collection in 64 titles and renamed it Vetus Gallica. The present analysis (VG) is based on that edition. The Dionysiana was used for the canons of the oriental councils and for the papal decretals.

The most recent texts in the Vetus Gallica are from the council of Autun (670). Mordek argues, however, that it is highly unlikely that these canons were available when the Vetus Gallica was conceived. The interval between the 2nd council of Mâcon in 585, which is the next most recent council cited, and the council of Autun is too long. Furthermore, it can be shown that a form of the Vetus Gallica was used at the council of Clichy in 626/627. Mordek argues that the collection was compiled at Lyon by or for bishop Etherius of Lyon (ca. 586–602). He points to the fact that it contains canons from both the 2nd and 3rd councils of Lyon (567/570 and 583 respectively). Mordek adds that the resources which must have been available to the compiler point to a major episcopal see and that by the end of the 6th century Lyon had taken over the dominance in southern Gaul which the see of Arles had enjoyed since the 5th century. 37

Mordek shows influence of the Vetus Gallica at an early date to the north of Lyon – at Autun, Luxeuil and Corbie – and circulation in all directions from Corbie by the beginning of the 8th century. The version which has survived, according to Mordek, was completed after 721 at Corbie. In the early 8th century the Vetus Gallica had become the only significant systematic collection available in Gaul and the collection served in the late 8th and early 9th centuries as the model for other systematic collections: the Collectio Herovalliana, the Frisingensis secunda and the Bonaevallensis prima.

Literature

For an edition, see Mordek, Kirchenrecht und Reform, pp. 343–617 (Vetus Gallica) and pp. 618–633 (Frisingensis secunda). The correspondence between the two collections is noted in the footnotes to the Frisingensis secunda. For bibliography, see Kéry, Canonical Collections, pp. 50–53 and 57.

Categories

• key is VG
• small (100 to 500 canons) collection
• from southern France
• terminus post quem 585
• terminus ante quem 670
• saec. VII
• Clavis enrties based on modern edition