In the fifth century bishops had brought problems to the apostolic see, which replied by laying down what was lawful and unlawful (leaving the bishops to do what they wanted with these responses). Shortly after the end of the empire in the West, the first decretal age comes to an end and a new phase begins: one of synthesis and compilation. This meant deciding what to leave out and what to include. Two collections, the Frisingensis prima and the Quesnelliana, include debate on the humanity and divinity of Christ, alongside the papal responses. The Dionysiana, however, leaves out these themes, which are in any case absent from the decretals of Siricius and Innocent I. Christological themes are absent also from letters of Leo I selected by Dionysius and from the ‘hold-all’ decretal Necessaria rerum dispositione of Gelasius I, which draws together in a quasi-synthesis the principal issues addressed in the first century of papal jurisprudence. Gelasius’s summative decretal and the Dionysiana anticipate the boundary that would separate canon law from what would be called theology, while the Frisingensis prima and Quesnelliana anticipate collections which recognize no such boundary.

The chapter discusses the transmission of early papal jursprudence, the text-critical procedures followed, and the translation policy.

The aim of the book is twofold: to uncover the content of the legal uncertainties that led bishops to write to popes in the decades around 400 CE, and to establish the texts of their legal rulings as found in the three earliest canon law collections. Data to enable users to track the subsequent reception of these rulings up to the mid-twelfth century is also provided.