Michael,
I agree that we should not just count beans, and my intention was to
point toward a probable source of the idea that Gregory was of little
importance for canon law. It simply is harder to assess an indirect or -
as you put it - foundational influence. I suspect, however, that we
might all go astray if we only played one pope off against another. It
might be better say that the Gregorian period had a weighty impact on
canon law compared to many earlier periods, both in terms of legislation &
judicial decision making and in terms of the several collections which
were done, including those originating in curial circles. In
comparision, only 3 decretals of the 10th century popes were collected by
Gratian.
I took a look at the Gregorian decretals to see what might have been
collected of the decretals of the Gregorian popes to supplement Gratian,
and I found only a few - none by Gregory. Gratian's collection,
as revized, became the textbook for the study of canon law; but that
does not make it the only possible conduit for influence of Gregory on
later practice & litigation.
tom izbicki
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