uch so that no other work of the same kind
has been compiled; just as there has never been made another Book of the
Sentences. These two works, which were almost contemporary (Gratian is
only about two years earlier),[24] were destined to have the same fate;
they were the manuals, one for theology, the other for canon law, in use
in all the universities, taught, glossed and commented on by the most
illustrious masters. From this period dates the more marked and
definitive separation between theology and ecclesiastical law.

Dicta Gratiani.

Contents.

Mode of citation.

Of Gratian we know practically nothing. He was a Camaldulensian monk of
the convent of St Felix at Bologna, where he taught canon law, and
published, probably in 1148, his treatise called at first _Concordantia
discordantium canonum_, but soon known under the name of the _Decretum_.
Nowadays, and for some time past, the only part of the _Decretum_
considered is the collection of texts; but it is actually a treatise, in
which the author endeavours to piece together a coherent juridical
system from the vast body of texts, of widely differing periods and
origin, which are furnished by the collections. These texts he inserts
bodily in the course of his dissertation; where they do not agree, he
divides them into opposite groups and endeavours to reconcile them; but
the really original part of his work are the _Dicta Gratiani_, inserted
between the texts, which are still read. Gratian drew his materials from
the existing collections, and especially from the richer of them; when
necessary, he has recourse to the Roman laws, and he made an extensive
use of the works of the Fathers and the ecclesiastical writers; he
further made use of the canons of the recent councils, and the recently
published decretals, up to and including the Lateran council of 1139.
His immense work consists of three parts (_partes_). The first, treating
of the sources of canon law and of ecclesiastical persons and offices,
is divided according to the method of Paucapalea, Gratian's pupil, into
101 _distinctiones_, which are subdivided into _canones_. The second
part consists of 36 _causae_ (cases proposed for solution), subdivided
into _quaestiones_ (the several questions raised by the case), under
each of which are arranged the various _canones_ (canons, decretals,
&c.) bearing on the question. But _causa_ xxxiii. _quaestio_ 3, headed
_Tractatus de Poenitentia_, is divided lik