Gratian Sentence Examples

After his death, his son, Valentinian Ii., an infant of four years of age, with his half-brother Gratian a lad of about seventeen, became the emperors of the West.

They made Milan their home; and the empire was nominally divided between them, Gratian taking the trans-Alpine provinces, whilst Italy, Illyricum in part, and Africa were to be under the rule of Valentinian, or rather of his mother, Justina.

In 387 Magnus Maximus, who had commanded a Roman army in Britain, and had in 383 (the year of Gratian's death) made himself master of the northern provinces, crossed the Alps into the valley of the Po and threatened Milan.

Then comes the law of Gratian already noticed.

Gratian acquiesced in their choice; reserving for himself the administration of the Gallic provinces, he handed over Italy, Illyria and Africa to Valentinian and his mother, who fixed their residence at Milan.

In May 378 Gratian completely defeated the Lentienses, the southernmost branch of the Alamanni, at Argentaria, near the site of the modern Colmar.

When Valens met his death fighting against the Goths near Adrianople on the 9th of August in the same year, the government of the eastern empire devolved upon Gratian, but feeling himself unable to resist unaided the incursions of the barbarians, he ceded it to Theodosius (January 379) With Theodosius he cleared the Balkans of barbarians..

For some years Gratian governed the empire with energy and success, but gradually he sank into indolence, occupied himself chiefly with the pleasures of the chase, and became a tool in the hands of the Frankish general Merobaudes and bishop Ambrose.

A Roman named' Maximus took advantage of this feeling to raise the standard of revolt in Britain and invaded Gaul with a large army, upon which Gratian, who was then in Paris, being deserted by his troops, fled to Lyons, where, through the treachery of the governor, he was delivered over to one of the rebel generals and assassinated on.

The reign of Gratian forms an important epoch in ecclesiastical history, since during that period orthodox Christianity for the first time became dominant throughout the empire.

Gratian's Decretum mirrors two tendencies, the church legislation with its growingly less extended application, and the wide meaning as in Justinian's Code, owing to the revival of Roman law in the 11th century.

One of these, Summa de assumpto homine, is of a theological character, dealing with the humanity of Christ; the other, Summa de matrimonio, is a legal argument, to the effect that the essential fact in marriage is neither, as Gratian maintains, the copula, nor, as Peter Lombard, consent by verba de praesenti, but mutual traditio.

The theory and practice of papal absolutism was successfully promulgated by Gratian in his Decretum, completed at Bologna about 1142.

At the very time when Peter Lombard was shaping his Sentences, the monk Gratian of Bologna was making a new collection of laws.

It was not only significant that in the Concordia discordantium canonum ecclesiastical laws, whether from authentic or forged sources, were gathered together without regard to the existing civil law; of even greater eventual importance was the fact that Gratian taught that the contradictions of the canon law were to be reconciled by the same method as that used by theology to reconcile the discrepancies of doctrinal tradition.

The general state of learning in this century is illustrated by Ausonius (c. 310-393), the grammarian and rhetorician of Bordeaux, the author of the Mosella, and the probable inspirer of the memorable decree of Gratian (376), providing for the appointment and the payment of teachers of rhetoric and of Greek and Latin literature in the principal cities of Gaul.

Of more historical interest are the two books Contra Symmachum, of 658 and 1131 hexameter verses respectively, the first attacking the pagan gods, the second directed against the petition of Symmachus to the emperor for the restoration of the altar and statue of Victory which Gratian had cast down.

The labours of Gratian are said to have been rewarded with the bishopric of Chiusi, but if so he appears never to have been consecrated; at least his name is not in any authentic list of those who have occupied that see.

Without awaiting the arrival of his nephew Gratian, emperor of the West, who had just won a great victory over one of the barbarous tribes 'Alum.

Certain of the vessels being driven upon "barbarous islands," their passengers are slain by Guanius and Melga, "kings of the Huns and Picts," whom Gratian had `called in to his aid against Maximian.

After thirty years of this work, he was summoned by Valentinian to the imperial court, to undertake the education of Gratian, the heir-apparent.

After the murder of Gratian (383), Ausonius retired to his estates near Burdigala.

The edict of Gratian lays down that it should be exorcized and blessed by the priest and sprinkled with exorcized salt.

Gratian's Concordia discordantium canonum, as he called his Decretum, was another strong influence, Lombard doing in a sense for theology what Gratian did for the canon law.

He accompanied his father into Britain (368), and a little later distinguished himself by defeating the Sarmatians who had invaded Moesia (374) On his father's death he retired to his native place, where he lived quietly till after the great battle of Adrianople (August 9, 378), when Gratian summoned him to share the empire.

He conducted in person the war against the Visigoths under Fritigern (in Macedonia and Epirus), and on one occasion was nearly betrayed into the enemy's hands; this campaign, in which Gratian's general Arbogast eventually lent help, was ended by Fritigern's death.

The same year saw the revolt of Maximus in Britain and the murder of Gratian.

Similarly, it has become customary to give the name of canons to the texts inserted in certain canonical complications such as the Decretum of Gratian, while the name of chapters is given to the analogous quotations from the Books of the Decretals.

From the Beginning to the Decretum of Gratian.

This is made even more noticeable by the fact that, in a good number of the works extant, the author is not content merely to set forth and classify the texts; but he proceeds to discuss the point, drawing conclusions and sometimes outlining some controversy on the subject, just as Gratian was to do more fully later on.

During this period, which extended from the end of the 9th century to the middle of the 12th, we can enumerate about forty systematic collections, of varying value and circulation, which all played a greater or lesser part in preparing the juridical renaissance of the 12th century, and most of which were utilized by Gratian.

But all these works were to be superseded by the Decretum of Gratian.

It is certainly Decretum the work which had the greatest influence on the of Gratian.

The work is not without its faults; Gratian is lacking in historical and critical faculty; his theories are often hesitating; but on the whole, his treatise is as complete and as perfect as it could be; so much 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)," 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.

Of Gratian we know practically nothing.

Gratian drew his materials from the existing collections, and especially from the 5 P. Fournier, " Le Premier Manuel canonique de la reforme du XI e siecle," in Melanges de l'Ecole francaise de Rome, xiv.

Moreover, it could not have become an official code; it would be impossible to transform into so many laws either the discordant texts which Gratian endeavoured to reconcile or his own Dicta; a treatise on canon law is not a code.

Gratian's collection, for the very reason that it had for its aim the creation of a systematic canon law, was a work of a transi After tional character.

The disciples of Gratian, in glossing or commenting on the Decretum, turned to the papal decretals, as they appeared, for information and the determination of doubtful points.

But we must not forget that these compilations were intended by their authors to complete the Decretum of Gratian; in them were included the decretals called extravagantes, i.e.

The result of all these supplements to Gratian's work, apart from the inconvenience caused by their being so scattered, was the accumulation of a mass of material almost as considerable as the Decretum itself, from which they Decretals Y tended to split off and form an independent whole, ixGregory embodying as they did the latest state of the law.

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.

In 376 he was deprived of his see, and Valens sent him into exile, whence he did not return till the publication of the edict of Gratian in 378.

The canons of Agde are based in part on earlier Gallic, African and Spanish legislation; and some of them were re-enacted by later councils, and found their way into collections such as the Hispana, Pseudo-Isidore and Gratian.

Meanwhile, however, Priscillian was made bishop of Avila, and the orthodox party found it necessary to appeal to the emperor (Gratian), who issued an edict threatening the sectarian leaders with banishment.

Priscillian, Instantius and Salvianus succeeded, however, in procuring the withdrawal of Gratian's edict, and the attempted arrest of Ithacius of Ossonuba.

On the murder of Gratian and accession of Maximus (383) Ithacius fled to Treves, and in consequence of his representations a synod was held (384) at Bordeaux, where Instantius was deposed.

Gratian, the son of the elder Valentinian, took the same side; but the younger Valentinian, who had now become his colleague in the empire, adopted the opinions of the Arians, and all the arguments and eloquence of Ambrose could not reclaim the young prince to the orthodox faith.

In this distracted state of religious opinion, two leaders of the Arians, Palladius and Secundianus, confident of numbers, prevailed 'upon Gratian to call a general council from all parts of the empire.

Having served with distinction against the Goths in Thrace, he was sent by Theodosius in 388 against Maximus, who had usurped the empire of the west and had murdered Gratian.

A rescript of Gratian in 378 empowered the bishop of Rome to judge bishops with the assistance of six or seven other bishops or, in the case of a metropolitan, of fifteen comprovincial bishops.

In dealing with pagans and heretics Gratian, who during his later years was greatly influenced by Ambrose, bishop of Milan, exhibited severity and injustice at variance with his usual character.

Thus Gratian became the founder of the science of canon law, a science which, like the scholastic theology, was entirely ecclesiastical and entirely rational (see Canon Law).

Valens had been attached to Julian's bodyguard, but he did not inherit the military ability of his father, Gratian of Pannonia, who had risen from the ranks to a high position.

Most of the canons, however, which constitute the ancient law, and notably those which appear in the Decretum of Gratian, emanate fr.,m local councils, or even from individual bishops; they have found a place in the common law because the collections of canons, of which they formed the most notable part, have been everywhere adopted.

This is why we find in them hardly any documents earlier than the time of Gratian, and also why canonists have 1 See Laurin, Introductio in corpus juris canonici, c. vii.