Decretals of Gregory IX (Liber Extra)
The official collection of papal and conciliar law in five books that Gregory IX issued in 1234. It carried the decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council and Gregory’s own statutes on heresy into the courts and law schools of the Latin church.
Read the text at tha.de ↗The bull Rex pacificus, with which Gregory IX sent the collection to the schools of Bologna ↗
In the bull Rex pacificus, addressed to the masters and students of Bologna, Gregory IX explains that the decretals of his predecessors were scattered through several volumes, repeated or contradicted one another and caused confusion in the courts. He had therefore had them gathered into one volume by his chaplain and penitentiary, brother Raymond, with his own constitutions added, and he ordered that this collection alone be used in courts and schools.
The collection is arranged by subject. Its title on heretics, book 5, title 7, contains the third constitution of the Fourth Lateran Council as chapter 13 and Gregory IX’s own decree Excommunicamus as chapter 15. The compiler shortened many texts, so the wording here is the wording that became law, which is not always the wording first issued.
Cited in
- March 1179, firm date
- November 1215, firm date
- 1231, firm date