RAINERIUS OF POMPOSA

Benedictine monk and deacon in the Abbey of Pomposa (Diocese of Comacchio) at the beginning of the 13th century; the first to compile a collection of decretals of Pope Innocent III. Nothing is known of his life. A confrere of his by the name of John was a member of the papal household (capellanus papae ); to him Rainerius dedicated the collection. The work was compiled in 1201 from the registers of the papal chancery and consists of 41 titles containing 123 decretal letters, most of them dating from the first three years (only 12 of the fourth year) of Innocent's pontificate. The work, known and used by a few canonists in the school of Bologna, was soon replaced by more comprehensive collections and seems to have been forgotten by 1220. The only extant manuscript comes from the Abbey of St. Thierry, near Reims (now Reims MS 692); it was discovered and edited by E. Baluze in 1682. It was likewise in northern France, at Rouen, that an unknown canonist in the early years of the 13th century made an abstract of Rainerius's collection (now Paris MS lat. 3922A).

Bibliography: Patrologia Latina, ed. j. p. migne, 271 v., indexes 4 v. (Paris 1878–90) 216:1173–1272. s. kuttner, Repertorium der kanonistik (Rome 1937) 71; Studi e Testi (Rome 1900–) 310. s. kuttner, Dictionnaire de droit canonique, ed. r. naz, 7 v. (Paris 1935–65) 7:583–584. g. forchielli, "Rainerio diacono e monaco pomposiano," Pomposia monasterium in Italia princeps: IX centenario del Campanile (Comacchio 1963).

[s. kuttner]