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28   Kathleen G. Cushing 3 Law, Penance, and the ‘Gregorian’ Reform The Case of Padua, Biblioteca del seminario vescovile MS 529 The Liber decretorum of Bishop Burchard of Worms was one of the most important canon law collections in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries until the compilations associated with Ivo of Chartres came into widespread use. Its popularity is borne out not just by its subsequent use as a formal source but also by its widespread transmission; the Liber decretorum (hereafter LD) remains extant in more than 80 copies in addition to some 20 fragments, some of which consist of single leaves. Compiled between 1012 and 1022, LD was soon thereafter transmitted, and Burchard himself may have had a role in its early dissemination. The collection—in the form of the Frankfurt manuscript—moved rapidly beyond Worms to southern Germany, to Burgundy, and to Italy.1 Burchard’s collection was especially valued in Italy, and nearly half the extant manuscripts are of Italian origin.2 It is known, for instance, that I am grateful to Adriaan Gaastra for his help in identifying the penitential transmission; he bears no responsibility for my interpretations or conclusions. An earlier version of this article was presented at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds in July 2009. I am grateful to Martin Brett, Peter Landau, John Wei, Rob Meens, and Sarah Hamilton for their comments. 1. Greta Austin, Shaping Church Law around the Year 1000: The Decretum of Burchard of Worms (Aldershot 2009) 26–31 with a comprehensive bibliography. For the reader’s assistance, a list of manuscript abbreviations used in the present article can be found at the end of the Appendix. 2. The classic work on the transmission of Burchard is Otto Meyer, ‘Überlieferung and Verbreitung des Dekrets des Burchard von Worms’ , ZRG, Kan. Abt. 24 (1935) 141–83, which was extended by Hubert Mordek, ‘Handschriftenforschungen in Italien’ , QF 51 (1971) 626–51; Gérard Fransen, ‘Le Décret de Burchard de Worms: Valeur du texte de l’édition. Essai de classement des manuscrits’ , ZRG Kan. Abt. 63 (1977) 1–19; idem, ‘Le Décret de Burchard’ in Gérard Fransen and Theo Kölzer, eds., Decretorum libri XX (Cologne 1548; repr. Aalen 1992) 19–42; Hartmut Hoffmann and Rudolf Pokorny, Das Dekret des Bischofs Burchard von Worms: Textstufen—Frühe Law, Penance, and the ‘Gregorian’ Reform  29 Abbot Rudolf I of Nonantola (1002–1035) had acquired a copy and that another was at the Cathedral of Parma by the mid-eleventh century. The early use of Burchard in Italy can also be seen in minor canonical collections such as the Collectio capitula veronensis (second quarter of the eleventh century), in the Collectio canonum of Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 3830 (mid-eleventh century), in the Collectio canonum Barberiniana (begun between 1050 and 1073 and augmented in two later stages), in the Collection in 183 Titles (after 1063),3 and Joseph Ryan long ago argued for its wider circulation in Italy before 1050, given the use of the collection made by Peter Damian in his letters.4 As well as being copied as a unique collection, LD was combined, especially in central and southern Italy, with the Collection in Five Books (5L) and its derivatives, later with the Diversorum patrum sententie, and with other penitential and liturgical collections, a number of which date from the mid-eleventh century onwards.5 In his important article on the Gregorians’ view of Burchard, Detlev Jasper noted that if it actually had been the reformers’ intention to supplant LD, they failed abysmally in Italy.6 In this article in honor of Robert Somerville, who long ago took on the role of my long-distance, unofficial and unpaid supervisor, I look to extend Jasper’s focus by examining an intriguing copy of LD, that in Padua, Biblioteca del seminario vescovile MS 529. By focusing on two unusual—if brief—series of penitential canons, one at the end of the manuscript and one inserted after Book 17; I look to expand the discussion of Burchard’s Italian reception by considering his monastic readers and to offer some preliminary comments about what this may tell us about law and penance in the age of the so-called Gregorian reform. Verbreitung—Vorlagen (MGH Hilfsmittel 12; Munich 1991). For further literature and manuscripts see Kéry, Can. Coll. 134–48. Cf. Austin, Shaping 28–31. 3. On these collections, see Fowler-Magerl, Clavis 94, 95–97, 98, 101; Joseph Motta, ed...

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