ISIDO'RIAN DECRVTALS, also called FALSE DECItETALS, a spurious compilation of the 9th c , which, by a singular combination of circumstances, obtained currency in the western church, and continued for several centuries to enjoy unquestioned authority. Up to the 9th c., the only authentic collection of dccretals, that of Dionysius Exiguus, commenced with the decrees of pope Siricius in the end of the 4th century. The so-called Isidorian decretals stretch hack through the predecessors of Siricius up to Clementhimself, and comprise no fewer than 59 decrees or epistles anterior to the time of Siricius. In a later part of the Isidorian collection, moreover, are interpolated nearly 40 similar documents, unknown till the time of that compilation. All these documents are presented not merely as authentic, but as the genuine productions of the particular popes to whom they are attributed. The subject-matter of these decretals is most diversified, comprising the authority and privileges of the pope, the whole system of the hierarchy, with the relations of its several orders to each other and to the common head. In all, there is a strong and systematic assumption of the papal supremacy; but it is at the same time more than doubtful whether the direct object of the author was the exaltation of the papal prerogative. It is much more likely that the object was to protect the rights of bishops against the arbitrary rule of the metropolitans. Dean Mil man thinks it probable that the author believed that he "was not asserting fur Rome any prerogative which Rome herself had not claimed" (Latin Christianity, ii. 378). Catholic historians, indeed, go further, and while they admit and denounce the clumsy fraud, contend that the easy and universal acceptance which the decretals met, furnishes the strongest presumption that the discipline which they have elaborated and niethodized, was already in full possession, although without the formal and written law which the daring adventurer attempted to provide in the decretals of the early pontiffs.
It is curious that the author, the place, and the date of this singular forgery are al 1 matter of uncertainty. It is certain that it did not come from Rome; and the most probable conjecture assigns its origin to Mentz. at some time between the years 840 and 847. It was introduced under the name of Isidore of Seville, as a part of the genuine collection known as his, and was believed to have been brought from Spain by Riculf, the archbishop of Mentz. It is hardly possible, in an age of discussion like ours, to doubt that, when the decretals first appeared, even the most superficial inquiry, or the slightest critical investigations of the historical sources, would have sufficed to detect the fraud. "It is impossible," says dean Milman, "to deny that at least by citing with out reserve or hesitation, the Roman pontiffs gave their deliberate sanction to this great historic fraud;" and yet it is equally impossible to fix the limit beyond which, in an age so uncritical, literary or historical credulity might not be carried without provoking its susceptibility, or disturbing its peace.
From the first circulation of the false decretals down to the 15th c., no doubts were raised regarding them. Nicholas of Cuss and cardinal Turrecremata were the first to question their genuineness; but after the reformation, the question was fully opened. The centuriators of Magdeburg demonstrated their utterly apocryphal character. A reply was attempted by Father de la Torre; but the question may be said to have been finally settled by Blondel.—See Milman's Latin ii. 370-80; Walther's Kirchenrecht, p. 155; Gfr5fer's Eirchengeschichte.