Florilegium "Pro causa iniuste"

The florilegium Pro causa iniuste excommunicationis, compiled at the end of the 7th or beginning of the 8th century (EI), has survived in three manuscripts: Verona, BC LXII (60), fol. 103v–107r (8th/9th century), Montpellier, Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire 233, fol. 123r– 125r (9th century), and Vercelli, BC CLXV, fol. 218r–222v (9th/10th century).

Georges Folliet, who published an analysis of the florilegium in 1985, recognized that Wenrich of Trier, later bishop of Vercelli, used it in 1080 for his opposition to the second excommunication and deposition of Henry IV. The florilegium was used earlier than that, however. The first two canons, both long citations from letters of Saint Augustine, are cited in the first third of the 11th century in original length (Vir spectabilis filius noster … senectutem meam and Ego propter eos … non agit perperam) in the tenth part of Collectio XII partium, which was compiled at Freising. The rubric: De causa iniuste excommunicationis. An excerpt from the second canon in the florilegium (Illud plane … non agit perperam) is the first canon in a series of excerpts from the florilegium found in the Collectio Veronensis (canons 239–244) in the Ms Verona, BC LXIV (62). This is the same excerpt of the second canon which is used in the Epistola Theodorici Virdunensis ad Gregorium papam. There are also found canons 3–9 and 11–15 of the florilegium. The first two canons of the florilegium are also found in the Ms Bergamo, Biblioteca Civica „Angelo Mai“ MA 244, which contains the 11th century French Collectio IV librorum. The first of the canons in the florilegium is transmitted in full length in version B of the collection of Anselm of Lucca (canon 11. 68), a version that Klaus Zechiel-Eckes localizes in the vicinity of Milan. The same text also appears in its full length as one of the later additions to the Tuscan manuscript containing the Collectio Barberiniana (canon 78. 6, see below).

None of the other canons in the florilegium were transmitted as widely as Illud plane although canons 3–5 and 12 (Secundum catholicam 44 fidem et sanam doctrinam, Pax ecclesie dimittit peccata, Temerarium iudicium and Sicut avis) appear in several collections. All of them are in the collection in the Ms Mantua, BCom 439 from Polirone and in the earlier core of the collection in the Ms Paris, BN lat. 13368 (see below).

Literature:

For an analysis of the florilegium, see Georges Folliet, Une collection anonyme „Pro causa iniustae excommunicationis“ des VIIe – VIIIe Siècles, in: Augustinianum 25 (1985), pp. 295–309. – For the use by Wenrich see MGH Libelli de lite 1 (Hanover 1891), pp. 292, 9–293,7. – For the use of the florilegium in the Veronensis see Zechiel-Eckes, Die Concordia canonum, pp. 172–175. – For the Bergamo manuscript see Jasper, Das Papstwahldekret, p. 20 n. 71. The first of the canons at the beginning of the Ms Bergamo are also found on fol. 12r–17r of the Ms Paris, BN lat. 4281A.