The history of the canonical collections forming the _Corpus juris_
would not be complete without an account of the labours of which they
were the object. We know that the universities of the middle ages
contained a Faculty of Decrees, with or without a Faculty of Laws, i.e.
civil law. The former made _doctores decretorum_, the latter _doctores
legum_. The teaching of the _magistri_ consisted in oral lessons
(_lecturae_) directly based on the text. The short remarks explanatory
of words in the text, originally written in the margin, became the gloss
which, formed thus by successive additions, took a permanent form and
was reproduced in the manuscripts of the _Corpus_, and later in the
various editions, especially in the official Roman edition of 1582; it
thus acquired by usage a kind of semi-official authority. The chief of
the _glossatores_ of the _Decretum_ of Gratian were Paucapalea, the
first disciple of the master, Rufinus (1160-1170), John of Faenza (about
1170), Joannes Teutonicus (about 1210), whose glossary, revised and
completed by Bartholomeus Brixensis (of Brescia) became the _glossa
ordinaria decreti_. For the decretals we may mention Vincent the
Spaniard and Bernard of Botone (Bernardus Parmensis, d. 1263), author of
the _Glossa ordinaria_. That on the _Liber Sextus_ is due to the famous
Joannes Andreae (c. 1340); and the one which he began for the
Clementines was finished later by Cardinal Zabarella (d. 1417). The
commentaries not so entirely concerned with the text were called
_Apparatus_; and _Summae_ was the name given to general treatises. The
first of these works are of capital importance in the formation of a
systematic canon law. Such were the _Summae_ of the first disciples of
Gratian: Paucapalea (1150),[27] Rolando Bandinelli[28] (afterwards
Alexander III., c. 1150), Rufinus[29] (c. 1165), Etienne of Tournai[30]
(Stephanus Tornacensis, c. 1168), John of Faenza (c. 1170), Sicard,
bishop of Cremona (c. 1180), and above all Huguccio (c. 1180). For the
Decretals we should mention: Bernard of Pavia[31] (c. 1195), Sinibaldo
Fieschi (Innocent IV., c. 1240), Henry of Susa (d. 1271), commonly
called (cardinalis) Hostiensis, whose _Summa Hostiensis_ or _Summa
aurea_ is a work of the very highest order; Wilhelmus Durantis or
Durandus, Joannes Andreae, Nicolas de Tudeschis (_abbas siculus_), &c.
The 15th century produced few original treatises; but after the council
of Trent the _Corpus juris_ was again commented on by distinguished
canonists, e.g. the Jesuit Paul Laymann (1575-1635), the Portuguese
Agostinho Barbosa (1590-1649), Manuel Gonzalez Tellez (d. 1649) and
Prospero Fagnani (1598-1687), who, although blind, was secretary to the
Congregation of the Council. But as time goes on, the works gradually
lose the character of commentaries on the text, and develop into
expositions of the law as a whole.
Editions.