POLYCARPUS

A Canon Law collection, preserved in 14 manuscripts in two forms. The first (13 MSS) was written between approximately 1104 and 1106 by Cardinal Gregory, who lived during the pontificate of Pope Paschal II (1100–18). It is divided into eight books, subdivided into topics that are in turn subdivided into chapters; every topic has a summary preceding it and every chapter a title. The collection contains regulations on all areas of ecclesiastical life and was intended to serve the aims of the gregorian reform. Its chief source is the collection of anselm of lucca; other sources are numerous conciliar canons and papal decrees, passages from the letters of Gregory the Great, texts from the Fathers of the Church, etc. The collection, although not widely disseminated, exercised an influence on some later collections. The author of the second form (1 MS) is unknown, but he seems to have been close to the Roman Curia and to have been active about 1120. The number of books is the same as in the first form, but the number of topics has been increased. The new chapters are regularly taken from the same sources as the first form. The second form was less widely disseminated than the first.

Bibliography: h. hÜffer, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Quellen des Kirchenrechts und des Römischen Rechts im Mittelalter (Münster 1862) 74–109. p. fournier, "Une Collection canonique italienne du commencement du XII^e siècle," Annales de l'Université de Grenoble 6 (1894) 400–409; "Les Deux recensions de la collection canonique romaine dite le Polycarpus," Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'École Française de Rome 37 (1918–19) 55–101. p. fournier and g. lebras, Histoire des collections canoniques en occident depuis les fausses décrétales jusqu'au Décret de Gratien (Paris 1931–32) 2:169–185. r. naz, Dictionnaire de droit canonique, ed. r. naz (Paris 1935–65) 7:18–20.

[g. may]