The Collectio canonum quadripartita (also known as the Collectio Vaticana or, more commonly, the Quadripartitus) is an early medieval canon law collection

Collections of ancient canons

Collections of ancient canons contain collected bodies of canon law that originated in various documents, such as papal and synodal decisions, and that can be designated by the generic term of canons.-Generalities:...

, written around the year 850 in the ecclesiastical province

Diocese

A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...

 of Reims

Reims

Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....

. It consists of four books (hence its modern name 'quadripartita', or 'four-parted'). The Quadripartita is an episcopal manual of canon and penitential law. It was a popular source for knowledge of penitential and canon law in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 in the ninth and tenth centuries, notably influencing Regino's

Regino of Prüm

Reginon or Regino of Prüm was a Benedictine abbot and medieval chronicler.-Biography:According to the statements of a later era, Regino was the son of noble parents and was born at the stronghold of Altrip on the Rhine near Speyer at an unknown date...

 enormously important Libri duo de synodalibus causis ('Two books concerning diocesan affairs'). Even well into the thirteenth century the Quadripartita was being copied by scribes and quoted by canonists who were compiling their own collections of canon law.

Background

The complementary acts of confession and penance, originally highly ritualized acts undertaken only once in a lifetime and in public fora, developed in the early Middle Ages into a disciplinary system known as private (or 'secret') penance, in which the faithful were encouraged to confess their sins regularly and in secret to a priest or confessor, who then enjoined an appropriate period of punishment. Through the Middle Ages the private penitential system became an increasingly elaborate and ritualized institution. In its earliest form, however―that is, as it was practiced from around the sixth to eighth centuries―this system was dependent upon the transmission of basic lists of sins (often sexual in nature, though also dietary, criminal and profane) and their corresponding punishments. These short lists of sins made up a genre of texts known as the 'penitential handbook' (or just 'penitential'). Penitentials were first employed as disciplinary tools by Irish and British monks living in cloistered, highly ascetical religious communities, but soon spread to England and France, where they developed into varied and grander forms. By the eighth century, penitentials had adopted a focus on lay sins; they were now commonly used by secular priests in their task of hearing confession from lay parishioners, and by bishops as tools for moral instruction. Their popularity was rivalled only by their variety; as the number of manuals in circulation grew, so did the discrepancies between them. This gave rise during the early ninth century to a backlash against the diversity of penitentials and the diversity of disciplinary and theological 'errors' which they propagated. A number of Frankish councils demanded that the laws of the older penitentials be brought into line with the accepted canonical norms of the church, as reflected in the more conservative collectiones canonum (canon law collections) being compiled at the time. Partly as a result of such efforts towards standardization, the older penitentials eventually fell out of use and were replaced by the large collections of penitential and canon law which dominated in France and Italy in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

During the Carolingian

Carolingian

The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...

 period there evolved two different yet overlapping contexts in which the penitentials were used. The first of these was the pastoral context of confession between priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

 and parishioner. The second was an administrative and/or academic context, in which books of penitential law typically served bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

s in their roles as administrators of local dioceses, adjudicators at judicial synods and students of moral philosophy and canon law. Naturally, the penitential required by a bishop was much different than that required by the confessor-priest, and it is largely within this episcopal context that the penitentials evolved from mere manuals into vast collections of penitential, disciplinary and administrative law. By the ninth century, chapters from penitential manuals had entered many of the influential canon law collections then being copied and compiled on the Continent. Since at least the fifth and sixth centuries, canon law collections could boast of being repositories of the ancient and authoritative conciliar and papal judgements of the Christian church. As such, these collections had at first stood in stark contrast to the early penitentials, whose lists of sins and corresponding penances was neither ancient nor authoritative. In time, however, the genres of collectio and penitential blended together. As canon law collections succumbed to revision and abandoned (or at least complicated) their claims to antique authority by including newer and less authoritative laws, it became more common for them to include penitential canons. The collections began to look more like penitentials, even as penitentials everywhere were beginning to take on characteristics (size, systematization, papal and conciliar laws) of the more 'formal' collectiones. Problems of textual stability and genre were further exacerbated by the fact that no one code or collection of canon law claimed status as the recognized standard. It was in this context of fluxuating generic and textual boundaries in France that the Quadripartita developed.

Composition

The first book treats the life, preaching, judgement and duty of priests; the second and third books discuss at length the purpose and use of private confession and penance, as well as the nature of sin; the fourth book contains nearly 400 short chapters drawn from conciliar, papal, patristic, penitential, and monastic sources, concerning all manner of disciplinary issues. Books 3 and 4 are significantly longer than books 1 and 2. Scholars have divided the Quadripartita into a number of component parts, including a dedicatory letter ('DL'), a brief list of authorities used ('Auctoritätenkataog', or 'AK'), a list or register of titles for each book ('R1, 'R2', 'R3', 'R4'), a general preface ('GP'), prefaces for books 2–4 ('P2–4'), the text or canons of the four books ('T1–4') and an Epilogue ('Ep').

Manuscripts and Transmission

There are nine extant manuscripts which contain the Quadripartita, dating from as early as the ninth century to as late as the twelfth, ranging geographically from Italy to England. The sigla given below (An, Mc, etc.) are those introduced by Franz Kerff.

Siglum	Manuscript	Contents
An	Antwerp, Museum Plantin-Moretus, M 82 (66), folios 52–100 (written first half of twelfth century in northeast France)	Quadripartita (P4, T4 – Ep); decretal Decretal Decretals is the name that is given in Canon law to those letters of the pope which formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law.They are generally given in answer to consultations, but are sometimes due to the initiative of the popes... s; Capitula Antwerpiensia; canonical excerpts
Mc	Monte Cassino Monte Cassino Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, Italy, c. to the west of the town of Cassino and altitude. St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. It was the site of Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944... , Archivio dell’Abbazia, Cod. 541 (previously 552) (written beginning of eleventh century in southern Italy)	Cresconius Cresconius Africanus Cresconius Africanus was a Latin canon lawyer, of uncertain date and place. He flourished, probably, in the latter half of the 7th century... , Concordia; theological material (creeds, etc.); epistles/decretals; Collectio Dionysiana (an abbreviation); Collectio Dacheriana (B); Quadripartita (P4, R4, T4 – Ep); chapters on baptism
O	Oxford Oxford The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through... , Bodleian Library Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library... , Bodley Thomas Bodley Sir Thomas Bodley was an English diplomat and scholar, founder of the Bodleian Library, Oxford.-Biography:...  718 (written second half of the tenth century in southern England, perhaps Canterbury Canterbury Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour.... )	Ecgberhtine penitential Penitential A penitential is a book or set of church rules concerning the Christian sacrament of penance, a "new manner of reconciliation with God" that was first developed by Celtic monks in Ireland in the sixth century AD.-Origin:...  (with Ghaerbald's Capitula episcoporum I interpolated); confession Confession This article is for the religious practice of confessing one's sins.Confession is the acknowledgment of sin or wrongs... al ordines; Quadripartita (R2, T2 – P3, R3, T3 – P4, R4, T4 – Ep); three conciliar canons Synod A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not... ; Collectio Hibernensis Collectio canonum Hibernensis The Collectio canonum Hibernensis is a systematic Latin collection of canon law, scriptural and patristic excerpts, and Irish synodal and penitential decrees...  (excerpts)
St	Stuttgart Stuttgart Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million .... , Württembergische Landesbibliothek Württembergische Landesbibliothek The Württembergische Landesbibliothek is a large library in Stuttgart, Germany, which traces its history back to the ducal public library of Württemberg, founded in 1765. It holds c. 3.4 million volumes and is thus the fourth-largest library in the state of Baden-Württemberg... , MS HB VII 62 (written near end of ninth century in Lake Constance Lake Constance Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...  region)	Quadripartita (DL, AK – GP, R1, T1 – P2, R2, T2 – P3, R3, T3 – P4, R4, T4 – Ep); several patristic Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...  excerpts
Tr	Trier Trier Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC.... , Stadtbibliothek, MS 1084/115, folios 103r–128v (written eleventh century probably in the province of Trier)	Quadripartita (DL, AK – GP, R1, T1 – P2, R2, T2 – P3, R3, T3 [chapters 1–10 only])
V10	Vatican city Vatican City Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of... , Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 1347 (written between ca 850 and 875 at/near Reims)	Cresconius, Concordia (fragmentary); theological material (creeds Nicene Creed The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325.The Nicene Creed has been normative to the... , etc.); epistles/decretals; Collectio Dacheriana (B); Quadripartita (P4, R4, T4 – Ep)
V11	Vatican city, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 1352 (written second half of eleventh century in Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... )	Quadripartita (DL – GP, R1, T1 – P2, R2, T2 – P3, R3, T3 – P4, R4, Burchard Burchard of Worms Burchard of Worms was the Roman Catholic bishop of Worms in the Holy Roman Empire, and author of a Canon law collection in twenty books, the "Collectarium canonum" or "Decretum".-Life:... , Decretum (excerpts), T4 – Ep); Burchard, Decretum (excerpts)
Vd	Vendôme Vendôme Vendôme is a commune in the Centre region of France.-Administration:Vendôme is the capital of the arrondissement of Vendôme in the Loir-et-Cher department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It has a tribunal of first instance.-Geography:... , Bibliothèque Municipale, 55 (s. xi, Vendôme)	Quadripartita (DL, AK – GP, R1, T1 – P2, R2, T2 – R4, T4 – Ep); Ghaerbald, Capitula episcoporum I; Collectio canonum 53 titulorum
W	Vienna Vienna Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre... , Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Austrian National Library The Austrian National Library , is the largest library in Austria, with 7.4 million items in its collections. It is located in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna; since 2005 some of the collections are located in the baroque Palais Mollard-Clary... , lat. 1286 (written first half of twelfth century in Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... )	Quadripartita (DL, AK – GP, R1, T1 – P2, R2, T2 – P3, R3, T3 – P4, R4, T4 – Ep)

The table above shows how the Quadripartita often circulated in incomplete form, no doubt as a result of the kinds of textual trauma and experimentation which anonymous collections typically experienced at the hands of medieval canonists. Of the nine manuscripts extant today which contain the Quadripartita six contain the collection without its full complement of four books. One can see from the manuscript evidence that some copies circulated without Book 1 (O), some without Book 3 (Vd), and some without Book 4 (Tr). More often than not, however, the entire four-book collection seems to have been transmitted intact (St, V₁₁, W). Some copies transmitted only Book 4 (An), which could sometimes be found tacked on to the end of the Collectio Dacheriana (Mc, V₁₀). This complex textual transmission, as well as the collection's wide distribution throughout France, Germany, Italy and England between the ninth and twelfth centuries, are indicative of the versatility of the Quadripartita and its popularity as a manual of penitential and canon law in the early Middle Ages.

Authorship

The Quadripartita is now understood to be an anonymous work. However, since the seventh century the Quadripartita has been attributed variously to Hrabanus Maurus, Ecgberht of York and Halitgar of Cambrai

Halitgar

Halitgar was a ninth-century bishop of Cambrai . He is known also as an apostle to the Danes, and the writer of a widely-known penitential.-Life:...

 (only in O is the Quadripartita directly associated with the works of a named author, Ecgberht).

Reception

The variety of forms in which the Quadripartita circulated, and the variety of texts and contexts with which it is associated in the extant manuscripts, speak to a lively, if uneven and unauthorized reception. Beyond what can be gleaned directly from the surviving manuscript evidence, however, it is now known that the Quadripartita influenced significantly at least nine, and perhaps as many as ten, canon law collections composed between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries, particularly in northeast France and the region around Trier. These are:

• the Collectio Mediolanensis II, written second half of ninth century near Rheims
• Regino of Prüm’s
  Regino of Prüm
  Reginon or Regino of Prüm was a Benedictine abbot and medieval chronicler.-Biography:According to the statements of a later era, Regino was the son of noble parents and was born at the stronghold of Altrip on the Rhine near Speyer at an unknown date...
  
   Libri duo de synodalibus causis, written ca. 906 at Trier
• the Collectio Wigorniensis (a.k.a. Excerptiones pseudo-Ecgberhti), written ca. 1005 in England
• the Collectio Sinemuriensis, written shortly after 1067 at Reims
• the Collection Brugensis, written end of eleventh century, of uncertain origin
• the Collectio tripartita commonly attributed to Ivo of Chartes, written ca 1100 at Chartres
• the collection that is Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 442, written after 1100 in northern France
• the collection that is Trier, Stadtbibliothek, MS 1098/14, written twelfth century at Trier
• the collection that is Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, nouv. acq. lat. 352, written end of thirteenth century in northern France
• and (possibly) the Collection 5 librorum, written about 1020 in central or southern Italy

Editions

The Quadripartita has never been edited critically, nor has it been printed in full. However, since the seventeenth century, a number of partial editions have appeared. To date, only books 3 and 4 have been printed in full:

• Book 2, chapter 1.
  • Earl R. P. of Selborne, Ancient facts and fictions concerning churches and tithes, second edition, with supplement (London, 1892), 329–30.
• Book 2, chapters 17–52.
  • H. Spelman, ed., Concilia, decreta, leges, constitutiones in re ecclesiarum orbis Britannici ... ab initio christianæ ibidem religionis, ad nostram usque ætatem ... Tom. I: ... a primis Christi seculis usque ad introitum Normannorum ... (London, 1639), 276–78 (printing from O).
  • P. Labbè and G. Cossart, eds, Sacrosancta concilia, ad regiam editionem exacta quæ nunc quarta parte prodit auctior, 17 vols (Paris, 1671–1672), VI, cols 1601–04 (reprinting Spelman).
  • J. Hardouin, ed., Acta conciliorum et epistolae decretales, ac constitutiones summorum pontificum, 11 vols (Paris, 1726, for 1714–1715), III, 1976–79 (reprinting Labbè-Cossart).
  • G. D. Mansi, ed., Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, 31 vols (Florence, 1759–1798); repr. in 53 volumes with supplementary material by J. B. Martin (Paris, 1901–1927; repr. Graz, 1960–1961), XI, 459–482 (reprinting Labbè-Cossart).
  • J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiæ cursus completus sive bibliotheca universalis ... omnium SS. patrum, doctorum scriptorumque ecclesiasticorum qui ab ævo apostoloca ad usque Innocentii III tempora floruerunt ... series prima (latina) (Paris, 1844–1855), LXXXIX, cols 431B–436A (reprinting Mansi).
• Book 3 (from a now lost manuscript)
  • G. Colvener, ed., Magnentii Hrabani Mauri ex abbate Fuldensi opera, quæ reperiri potuerunt omnia in sex tomos distincta, collecta primum industria Iacobi Pamelii ... nunc vero in lucem emissa cura ... Antonii de Henin, 6 vols in 3 (Cologne 1626–1627), VI, 130–55.
  • Migne, ed., Patrologiae latina, CXII, cols 1333–1398C (reprinting Colvener).
• Book 4 (from V₁₀ and V₁₁)
  • Richter, ed., Antiqua canonum collectio.
• incipits and explicits of entire collection as found in St have been published by
  • L. Fowler-Magerl's Clavis canonum, analyzed as collection 'QU'.

In addition, the dedicatory letter, prefaces of all four books and the epilogue have been printed various times:

• Colvener, ed., Hrabani Mauri opera,
  • printed P3 from a now lost manuscript.
• E. Martène and U. Durand, eds, Veterum scriptorum et monumentorum historicorum, dogmaticorum, moralium, amplissima collectio, 9 vols (Paris 1724–1733; repr. New York, 1968), I, cols 70E–76D,
  • printed DL, AK, GP, P2, R3, P3, R3 from Tr.
• Theiner, Disquisitiones criticae, 334 n. 3,
  • printed P4 and Ep from Mc.
• Wasserschleben, Beitraege zur Geschichte der vorgratianischen Kirchenrechtsquellen, 4–5,
  • printed P4 from V₁₀ and V₁₁.
• Richter, ed., Antiqua canonum collectio,
  • printed DL, P2, P3 and Ep from Tr.
• Maassen, Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des canonischen Rechts im Abendlande, 853 n 2 and 853–55,
  • printed DL (partial), AK and GP (partial) from V
• Selborne, Ancient facts, 327–31,
  • printed DL, GP, R1, P2, P3, P4 and Ep from O and V₁₁

External links

• Richter's 1844 edition of Book 4 (Google Books)
• Transcription of Book 4 of the Quadripartita from Bodley 718