Folia Theologica et Canonica 6. 28/20 (2017)

IUS CANONICUM - José Miguel Viejo-Ximénez, Raymond of Penyafort decretalist

126

JOSÉ MIGUEL VIEJO-XIMÉNEZ

3. Rome: Pope’s Chaplain and Confessor

Raymond would have been offered a post in the roman curia after the cardinal report, although it is true that there are no documentary evidences. He is supposed to have been summoned to Rome in mid-1230, when Gregory IX ( 1227— 1241) appointed him «capellanum et poenitentiarum nostrum»30. If the anecdote that circulated among canonists since the times of Johannes de Deo (f 1267) is to be believed, by this time the pope, annoyed by the pathetic shape of a collection of decretals, decided to arrange a new one31. Why he selected Raymond is unknown, although his career as professor in Bologna and his writings were sufficient qualifications. Raymond would have started the work in 1230 or 1231. Did he receive instructions? Did he work alone? The only certainty is that the volume was finished by September 5, 1234, when the pope ordered that Raymond’s collection -called the Compilatio Domini Gregorii Pape noni, the Decretale s Gregorii Villi, the Gregoriana or the Liber Extra (X)32- should be the only one used in ecclesiastical courts and schools of canon law, and banned the making of new collections without papal permission33 34. According to Rex Pacifiais, the papal bull, some of the constitutions and decretals of Gregory’s predecessors collected in different volumes were similar, while others were contradictory and still others were verbose. Other papal constitutions and decretals outside these volumes led judges and students to wonder whether they were valid. Therefore, Gregory asked his chaplain to smooth out these misunderstandings in a new book that would include Gregory’s constitutions and decretals to resolve doubts. Gregory IX authorized his chaplain to suppress, shorten, and revise any text found in the Compilationes antiquaeM.

30 On the office, cf. Göller, E., Die päpstliche Pönitentiarie von ihrem Ursprung bis zu ihrer Umgestaltung unter Pius V, I: Die päpstliche Pönitentiarie bis Eugen IV. - 1. Darstellung, Roma 1907. 75-212, who calls Raymond «Der bedeutensdste unter allem Pönitentiarem» (153).

31 Cf. Bertram, M., Die Dekretalen Gregors IX. Kompilation oder Kodification?, in Longo, C. (a cura di), Magister Raimundus: atti del convegno per il IV centenario della canonizzazione di San Raimondo de Penyafort: 1601-2001, Roma 2003. 61-86. Bertram, M., Decretales de Gregorio IX, in Otaduy, J. - Viana, A. - Sedano, J. (dir.), Diccionario General de Derecho Canonico, IL 916-923.

32 The official edition of the Roman Catholic Church is known as the Editio romana: Decretales D. Gergorii Papae IX suae integritati una cum glossi restitutae, Romae 1582. Critical edition: Friedberg, Ae. (ed.), Corpus Iuris Canonici Editio Lipsiensis secunda. Pars secunda Decreta- lium Collectâmes, Lipsiae 1879 (repr. Graz 1959).

33 Cf. Gregorius IX, Bulla, Rex Pacificus: Auvray, L. (ed.), Les registres de Grégoire IX, Paris 1896.1, num 2083: «Dilectis filiis doctoribus et scolaribus universis Parisius commorantibus».

34 Cf. van Hove, A., Prolegomena. Commentarium Lovaniense in Codicem iuris canonici 1/1. Mechlinae - Romae 1945, n. 363 (note 2). van Hove, A., De decretalium Gregorii IX origine históriai, Militate et momento, in lus Pontificium XIV (1934) 102-120.