Distinction XXIX — Decretum of Gratian

¶.

GRATIAN. But it must be noted that, according to Isidore, very many chapters are to be considered according to cause, place, and time. For he says:

Friedberg, col. 105/106

1.

C. I. Let the rules of the canons be understood according to time, place, person, and cause.

It is to be known that very many chapters are to be considered according to cause, person, place, and time. Because their modes are not investigated to the marrow, some persons, becoming entangled, strike against the labyrinth of error when they judge before they understand and blame before by repeated reading they inquire. Hence Gregory also says:

Friedberg, col. 105/106

2.

C. II. The rules of the saints are moderated according to the variety of circumstances.

The rules of the holy fathers were handed down according to time, place, and person, with the necessity of the affair pressing.

Friedberg, col. 105/106

3.

[C. III.] The Scriptures are to be understood according to the diversity of places, times, and persons.

Likewise Jerome in the epistle to the Ephesians. It is necessary that, according to the diversities of the times, places, and persons to whom they were written, they should also have diverse causes, arguments, and origins. And just as blessed John, writing to seven churches in his Apocalypse, in each of them specially reproves vices or approves virtues, so also the holy Apostle Paul throughout the individual churches remedies the wounds that were inflicted and does not, in the fashion of an unskilled physician, wish to cure everyone’s eyes with one eye salve.

Friedberg, col. 107/108