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Abstract
This dissertation examines the Decretum, of Burchard, Bishop of Worms, which scholars have usually characterized as a practical but unsophisticated canon law collection. It argues that the Decretum is actually a sophisticated and legally ambitious work. In his Preface, Burchard identified three problems with the canon law collections of his day: canons lacked authority; canons disagreed with each other; and the collections did not provide guidance on a wide range of topics. By studying books 6, 10 and 12 (the books on homicide, magic and superstition, and oaths and perjury), I demonstrate that the Decretum compiler (or compilers) actively worked to present a body of law that corrected all three of these problems. First, to ensure the authority of the law, the compiler included only canons attributed to important ecclesiastical sources. Second, the compiler eliminated conflicts between canons by omitting all canons which disagreed with broad legal principles that were derived from the Bible. Third, the compiler ensured that a priest consulting his collection could find answers to a wide range of legal problems. He accomplished this by separating the broad biblical principles from the general rulings. Even if the Decretum failed to give specific guidance on a particular legal issue that confronted a priest, the priest could still derive a law from the general biblical principles. After discussing the Decretum's solutions to the problems that plagued other canon law collections, this dissertation considers the issue of forgery. As other scholars have noted, the Decretum compiler often altered the canons he found before including them in his collection. I argue that he did so out of desperation. The compiler worked with a small pool of canons, and few of these met his rigorous criteria for inclusion in the collection. This dissertation concludes by pointing out that scholars must reconsider Burchard's Decretum. Scholars have typically denigrated it as primitive. The Decretum is, however, highly sophisticated, and it anticipates later, more celebrated collections of canon law.
