Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Franciscus Gratianus

GRATIANUS, Franciscus, compiler of the Concordia discordantium Canonum or Decretum Gratiani, and founder of the science of canon law, was born about the end of the 11th century at Chiusi in Tuscany or, according to another account, at Carraria near Orvieto. In early life he appears to have been received into the Camaldulian monastery of Classe near Ravenna, whence he afterwards removed to that of San Felice in Bologna, where he spent many years in the preparation of the Concordia. The precise date of this important work cannot be ascertained, but it contains references to the decisions of the Lateran council of 1139, and the statement is vouched for by tolerably good authority that it was completed while Pope Alexander III. was still simply professor of theology at Bologna, in other words, prior to 1150. 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 to be found in any authentic list of those who have occupied that see. The year of his death is unknown.

For some account of the Decretum Gratiani and its history see Canon Law. The latest edition is that of Friedberg (Corpus Juris Canonici, Leipsic, 1876). Compare Schulte, Zur GeschicJde dcr Lltcmtur iibcr das Dccrct Gratia/is (1870), Die Glosse zum Decrct Gralians (1872), and Gcschichte dcr Qucllcn und Litcratur des Kunonischen Rcchts (1875).