Dictatus papae
The list of 27 propositions entitled Dictatus papae is preserved in the register of Gregory VII (Reg. Vat. 2) and in the twelfth-century copy of that register in Troyes, BM, 952 on fol. 49–50. Its entry number in the edition is 2. 55a, and it is found between two letters written on March 3, 1075, one to the faithful of Lodi and one to Manasses of Reims. It is also found in the Collectio Tarraconensis (6. 42), and excerpts are appended to the Turin Collectio VII librorum 159. The Dictatus will not be analysed separately here.
The radical nature of the propositions and the extremely limited circulation require explanation. The propositions were probably intended as guidelines for papal legates as well as for the canonists at Rome from whom Gregory VII hoped to receive a canon law collection suited to his purposes. Hugo of Die apparently revealed the propositions at the council of Poitiers in 1078, and they were received into the Collectio Tarraconensis. In Rome and Tuscany they influenced canonists. The influence on Deusdedit is apparent. Single propositions with claims similar to those in the Dictatus papae are found in a group of related collections. For example, the late 11th century Collection in Two Books/Eight Parts (VB01.073) and the 13L in Berlin, SBPK, Savigny 3 (SA10.149) have the rubric: Quod papa possit reges deponere et excommunicare et per scriptum.
The closest known parallel to the Dictatus papae is the so-called Dictatus of Avranches or Proprie auctoritates apostolice sedis.
Literature
The Dictatus papae was edited by Erich Caspar in MGH Epp. sel. 2.201 ff. Its influence on Deusdedit has long been recognized. See Blumenthal, Fälschungen bei Kanonisten, p. 253 and n. 45 and 46. See also Horst Fuhrmann, Papst Gregor VII. und das Kirchenrecht zum Problem des Dictatus papae, Studi Gregoriani 13 (1989), pp. 123–147.
Categories
- collection not in Clavis
- belongs to Dictatus papae group
- very small (less than 100 canons) collection
- from Rome / Central Italy
- saec. XI (1075)
