existed.[11] They are, however, of difficult and uncertain ascription,
since the collections have been largely amended and remodelled as
practice required. Among the most important we may mention those bearing
the names of Vinnianus (d. 589), Gildas (d. 583), Theodore of Canterbury
(d. 690), the Venerable Bede (d. 735) and Egbert of York (732-767); the
Penitentials which are ascribed to St Columbanus, the founder of Luxeuil
and Bobbio (d. 615), and Cumean (Cumine Ailbha, abbot of Iona); in the
Prankish kingdom the most interesting work is the Penitential of
Halitgar, bishop of Cambrai[12] from 817 to 831. As penances had for a
long time been lightened, and the books used by confessors began to
consist more and more of instructions in the style of the later moral
theology (and this is already the case of the books of Halitgar and
Rhabanus Maurus), the canonical collections began to include a greater
or smaller number of the penitential canons.

Irish collection.

The Irish collection,[13] though it introduced no important documents
into the law of the Western Church, at least set canonists the example
of quoting passages from the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers.
This collection seems to date from the 8th century; besides the usual
sources, the author has included several documents of local origin,
beginning with the pretended synod of St Patrick.

The false decretals.

Systematic collections.

In the very middle of the 9th century a much enlarged edition of the
_Hispana_ began to be circulated in France. To this rich collection the
author, who assumes the name of Isidore, the saintly bishop of Seville,
added a good number of apocryphal documents already existing, as well as
a series of letters ascribed to the popes of the earliest centuries,
from Clement to Silvester and Damasus inclusive, thus filling up the gap
before the decretal of Siricius, which is the first genuine one in the
collection. The other papal letters only rarely show signs of alteration
or falsification, and the text of the councils is entirely
respected.[14] From the same source and at the same date came two other
forged documents--firstly, a collection of Capitularies, in three books,
ascribed to a certain Benedict (Benedictus Levita),[15] a deacon of the
church of Mainz; this collection, in which authentic documents find very
little place, stands with regard to civil legislation exactly in the
position of the False Decretals