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Decretal

Charles Buck Theological Dictionary

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Dictionaries
Charles Buck Dictionary
• Decretal
1910 New Catholic Dictionary
• False Decretals
• Decretals, False
• Decretal
Webster Dictionary
• Decretive
• Decretion
• Decrete
•   (only first 3 shown)
Encyclopedias
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Decretals
McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia
• Canon Law, Canons of Discipline, Canons and Decretals of Rome.
• Decret, Claude
• Decretals
•   (only first 3 shown)
The Nuttall Encyclopedia
• Decretals, the
• Isodorian Decretals
The Catholic Encyclopedia
• False Decretals
• Papal Decretals

A letter of a pope, determining some point of question in the ecclesiastical law. The decretals compose the second part of the canon law. The first genuine one, acknowledged by all the learned as such, is a letter of Pope Siricius, written in the year 385, to Himerus, bishop of Tarragona, in Spain, concerning some disorders which had crept into the churches of Spain. Gratian published a collection of decretals, containing all the ordinances made by the popes till the year 1150. Gregory IX. in 1227, following the example of Theodosius and Justinian, formed a constitution of his own, collecting into one body all the decisions and all the causes which served to advance the papal power; which collection of decretals was called the Pentateuch, because it contained five books.