Ivo of Chartres, Decretum

There are three systematic collections associated with bishop Ivo of Chartres the earliest of which is a collection edited in 1561 and known since then as the Decretum. The other two are the Collectio B [S. 194] of the Tripartita and the Panormia, both dependent on the Decretum. One of the abbreviated versions of the Decretum attributes the collection to Ivo. In the Ms Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 19 there is a 13th century ascription to Ivo and in the Ms Paris, BN lat. 3874 a late ascription to him as well. The collection is divided into 17 parts in most of the manuscripts, in others the final part is missing.

The first edition was published by Jean van der Meulen (Molinaeus) in 1561 at Louvain. His edition was based on two copies, a „codex regius“ and a Cologne manuscript which no one has been able to identify. The surviving manuscript closest to the edition is Vat. Pal. lat. 587. Jean Fronteau published in Paris in 1647 a second, inferior edition as the first volume of the Opera omnia of Ivo. This second edition was reprinted in Migne PL 161. 47–1036. At present Martin Brett is preparing an annotated copy of this edition. The draft of the text, with identification of the formal sources, will become available on his web-site; this is much needed. One of the most important reasons is that the rubrics in the copy in the Patrologia latina are not those found in the manuscripts.

The most recent text in the Decretum is a letter that pope Urban II sent to Grenoble sometime between 1091–1093. Christof Rolker has compared the content of the collections attributed to Ivo with the canons that Ivo cites in his letters. Peter Landau divides the surviving copies of the Decretum into a French and an English group, not on the basis of where they were made, but rather on the basis of their present location. The copies in his so-called French group are found in the Mss Paris, BN lat. 14315 (near Chartres according to Brett) and Vat. lat. 1357, which is very close to that of the Paris manuscript. The present analysis is based on the Ms Paris, BN lat. 14315 (ID). Landau has established that the „French“ version was used in compiling Collectio B of the Tripartita, the Panormia, the Collectio S. Genoveve and a collection on fol. 314r–393v of the Ms Paris, BN lat. 4809.

Rolker has examined the appendix of three folia at the end of the Ms Vat. lat. 1357 (fol. 244va–247rb). It is written in the main hand and contains the canons found in the „English“ copies. The appendix also contains material suggesting a provenance in northern France in the last third of the 12th century.

The „English“ copies are in the Mss Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 19 (Brett describes the script as Anglo-Norman minuscule), London, BL Royal 11. D. VII and the Ms Paris, BN lat. 3874 (Colbertine). Brett specifies that the London Royal copy is related to, [S. 195] but not a direct copy of the Cambridge copy. An English copy was used by the compiler of an excerpted form of the Decretum which survives in several manuscripts: Rome, Biblioteca dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei Corsini 41 E 1 (1808); London, BL Harley 3090; Vienna, ÖNB Cod. 2196 and Leipzig, UB 955. Related to the English group is the Ms Vat. Pal. lat. 587, which breaks off with canon 6. 432.

The 17th and final part of the collection, which is found in most of the complete manuscripts (Speculativas sanctorum patrum sententias de fide, spe et caritate), is missing in the Ms Paris, BN lat. 3874 and in the group of excerpts based on the English group mentioned above. According to Landau this probably represents an early shorter form. The 17th part is not to be found in two important immediate derivatives of the Decretum either, the Tripartita B and the Panormia, nor is there anything of this part of the collection in the Ms Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal 713, one of the major sources of the collection.

Brett has identified the canons that the compiler of the Collectio Caesaraugustana took from the Decretum and established that that compiler used an early version of the Decretum which contained canons found only in the „French“ as well texts found only in the „English“ version. He points to the fragmentary copy of the Decretum in the Ms Sigüenza, Archivo de la Catedral 61 as a possible example of such an early, more complete version. On the basis of the recent work of Christof Rolker, however, this might mean a „French“ or „English“ copy with an appendix.

There are further abbreviated forms of the Decretum in the Mss: Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit 184; Lincoln, Cathedral Library 193, fol. 1–158; Antwerp, Musaeum Plantin-Moretus M.144, fol. 90–146v (from Oxford) and Plantin-Moretus M. 227, fol. 80r–154v.

The Decretum is accompanied by a prologue sometimes used also for the Panormia. Jean Werckmeister calls Ivo, on the basis of this prologue, the first true canonist because it deals theoretically with such essential aspects of canon law as reconciliation of apparent contradictions, immutable and contingent law, dispensation and judgment versus mercy. The prologue refers to the collection itself as a Liber extractionum sive excerptarum ecclesiasticarum regularum partim ex epistolis Romanorum pontificum, partim ex gestis conciliorum catholicorum episcoporum et regum. There is still no agreement about which collection the prologue originally belonged to, however. Franz Bliemetzrieder thought the prologue was written expressly for the Decretum, Paul Fournier that it was written for the Panormia, [S. 196] Bruce Brasington that it was an autonomous treatise. Christof Rolker notes that the prologue draws on material in the Collectio A of the Tripartita and Decretum, but not on material specific to the Panormia.

The titles of the parts in the Decretum are as follows: 1.) De fide et sacramento fidei idest baptismate et ministerio baptizandorum et baptizatorum et consignandorum et consignatorum, de observatione singulorum et quid conferat baptisma, quid confirmatio. 2.) De sacramento corporis et sanguinis domini et de perceptione et observatione et de missa et aliorum sacramentorum sanctitate. 3.) De ecclesia et rebus ecclesiasticis et earundem reverentia et observatione. 4.) De observandis festivitatibus et ieiuniis legitimis, de scripturis canonicis et consuetudinibus et celebratione concilii. 5.) De primatu romane ecclesie et de iure primatum et metropolitanorum atque episcoporum et de ordinatione eorum et de sublimitate episcopali. 6.) De clericorum conversatione et ordinatione et correctione vel causis. 7.) De monachorum et monacharum singularitate et quiete et de revocatione et penitentia eorum qui continentie propositum transgrediuntur. 8.) De legitimis coniugiis, de virginibus et viduis non velatis, de raptoribus earum et de separatione eorum, de concubinis et transgressione coniugii et penitentia singulorum. 9.) De incesta copulatione et fornicatione diversi generis et in qua linea fideles coniungi et separari debeant et de correctione et penitentia singulorum. 10.) De homicidiis spontaneis et non spontaneis, de parricidiis et fratricidiis et de occisione legitimarum uxorum et seniorum et clericorum et quod non omnis hominem occidens homicida sit et eorum penitentia. 11.) De incantatoribus, de auguribus, de divinis, de sortilegis, sortiariis et variis illusionibus diaboli et de singulorum penitentia. 12.) De mendacio et periurio, de accusatoribus, de iudicibus, de defensoribus et falsis testibus et de singulorum penitentia. 13.) De raptoribus, de furibus, de venatoribus, de maledicis et contentiosis, de comessationibus et ebrietatibus, de furiosis, de iudeis et eorum correctione. 14.) De excommunicatione iusta vel iniusta et quibus de causis et quo ordine facienda sit excommunicatio. 15.) De penitentia sanorum et infirmorum et qua communicatione leniri possit penitentia. 16.) De officiis laicorum et causis eorumdem. 17.) Speculativas sanctorum patrum sententias de fide, spe et caritate.

The most recent listing of the sources was made by Martin Brett. The major sources are the Liber decretorum of Burchard, the Collectio A of the Tripartita, the Britannica and the collection in the Ms Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal 713. The compiler of the Decretum [S. 197] used most of the canons in the Liber decretorum. I have shown elsewhere that both the French and the Italian versions of Burchard were used or at least a mixed version. As for the Collectio A, Brett notes that if it was compiled merely as preparation for the Decretum, the compiler was wasteful to the point of extravagance. Brett also points to the gap between the Decretum and the Tripartita „both in interests and sources“. Unlike the Tripartita, the Decretum does not use any of the material in the Brugensis or Quadripartitus. Furthermore, a form of the Britannica was used in which extracts from letters of pope Alexander II were present, in other words, a „better Britannica“. Brett reveals that the Arsenal collection supplied long passages of texts for books 1, 4–5, 7–14 and 16 of the Decretum.

As I have argued below (see p. 209 ff), I maintain that the Decretum was compiled well before 1110 because it was used for the Panormia of Ivo and that collection is at the basis of the first version of the Collectio X partium compiled at Thérouanne.

Literature:

For the manuscripts, the editions and the classification of the copies and some of the excerpts see Landau, Das Dekret, pp. 1–44; reprinted in his: Kanones und Dekretalen, pp. 117*–160* and 473*f. He also lists the canons peculiar to each version. For the manuscripts, the sources and the use of the Britannica see Brett, Urban II, pp. 41–44. – For the prologue see Bruce Brasington, The Prologue of Ivo of Chartres: A fresh consideration of the manuscripts, in : Proceedings of the 8th ICMCL, pp. 3–22. Idem, Studies in the Nachleben of Ivo of Chartres: The Influence of his Prologue on Several Panormia-Derivate Collections, in: Proceedings of the 9th ICMCL, pp. 63–85. –For the translation of the prologue into English, see Somerville and Brasington, Prefaces, pp. 132–158. Jean Werckmeister has published the Latin text, a translation into French together with an introduction: Yves de Chartres, Prologue, texte latin et traduction française (Sources canoniques 1, Paris 1997). See also from Werckmeister, Le premier „canoniste“: Yves de Chartres, RDC 47/1 (1997), pp. 53–70. – For the use of two copies of Burchard see Fowler-Magerl, Fine Distinctions, pp. 146–152. – For the papal decretals see Jasper, The Beginning of the Decretal Tradition, passim. Jasper has established the use of the Britannica for letters of popes Honorius (see p. 90 n. 5) and Leo IV (p. 109) and the use of both the Tripartita and the Britannica for some of the letters of pope Nicholas I (p. 124). Most of the letters of popes John VIII and Stephen V were also taken from the Britannica. For the letters of pope Leo I, see p. 57 n. 237, for the letters of pope John VIII, p. 129 f, for the letters of pope Stephen V, p. 131. – For the use of a synodal ordo taken from an Italian copy of the Liber decretorum of Burchard see Schneider, Die Konzilsordines, pp. 36 f [S. 198] and 89. – For the excerpt in the Ms Lincoln see Paul Fournier, Notes sur les anciennes collections, RHD 12 (1933), pp. 130–132. – I would like to express my gratitude to Martin Brett who lent me his analyse of the excerpt in the Ms Antwerp, Musaeum Plantin-Moretus M. 144 and to Hans Van de Wouw who lent me his analyse of the Ms Leiden, BPL 184. Landau, Neue Forschungen, pp. 25–27; reprinted in his: Kanones und Deketalen, p. 201*–203*. Idem, Quellen und Bedeutung des Gratianischen Dekrets, Studia et Documenta Historiae et Iuris 52 (1986), p. 223; reprinted in his: Kanones und Dekretalen, p. 212*.

See now Martin Brett, Editions, Manuscripts and Readers in Some Pre-Gratian Collections, in: Ritual, Text and Law: Studies in Medieval Canon Law and Liturgy presented to Roger E. Reynolds, ed. K. G. Cushing and R. F. Gyug (Ashgate 2004), p. 212. – Kéry, Canonical Collections, pp. 250–253.