ABSTRACT
The significance of the papal responsa lies in the light they throw on the working of the mechanism of episcopal consultation which played a large part in shaping ‘the law of the decretals’, as it came to be authorized by Gregory IX in 1234. There is nothing in the dating of archiepiscopal acta witnessed by Master Gerard which precludes the possibility that it was he who secured the responsa. By the 1150s, Gratian’s Concordia discordantium canonum (Decretum) had become the principal foundation for the teaching, study, and practice of canon law; but it was not the perfect vehicle for judicial practice. The creation of the new decretal law in the twelfth century resulted from a combination of the reforming activities of bishops and archbishops and the professional work of schoolmen. Wherever canon law was taught, in an episcopal school or embryonic university, the masters chose the most relevant material from whatever was available to them.
