Die erste Dekretale: Der Brief Papst Siricius' an Bischof Himerius von Tarragona vom Jahr 385 (JK 255): Aus dem Nachlass mit Ergänzungen herausgegeben von Detlev Jasper by Klaus Zechiel-Eckes (review)

After his fabled victory at the Milvian Bridge, Constantine ended the persecutions of Diocletian and extended to Christianity the status of a tolerated religion, one with powerful support from the uppermost reaches of the imperial government. Thirteen years later, bishops from across Christendom convened at Nicaea under the emperor's aegis. As a robust conciliar tradition emerged, Peter's successors awaited the institutional and bureaucratic developments befitting their central position in the empire. A great part of these accrued during the reign of Theodosius. The edict Cunctos populos, promulgated at Thessalonica on 28 February 380, bound Roman subjects to profess the faith proclaimed by the bishops of Rome and Alexandria, formally enforcing Nicene orthodoxy. The preceding years had seen legislation establishing procedural rules for ecclesiastical courts, freeing Christian clergy from public service and taxation, and proscribing heresy. These measures coincided with the pontificate of Pope Damasus I (d. 384), who brought to bear a corresponding insistence on the authority and the dignity of his office. Among other things, he articulated a vision of Roman primacy that circumvented the rival claims of other sees by drawing on Jesus's familiar statement to Peter in the Gospel of Matthew: 'Upon this rock I will build my church… And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven' (Matt. 16:16-18).¹

Assertions like these opened a new era in canonical history, one that found its law not only in the conciliar tradition, but also among the decretal letters issued by the bishops of Rome. That Damasus's assertions were taken seriously even in the provinces we learn from an inquiry on matters of church discipline that Bishop Himerius of Tarragona directed to the Apostolic See in 384. Damasus died shortly before the letter arrived, and thus it is that the first papal decretal came to be issued by his successor, Pope Siricius, on 10 February 385. This is JK 255, Directa ad decessorem, and it is the subject of an edition, facing-page translation, and brief monographic study by Klaus Zechiel-Eckes, late professor of medieval history at the University of Cologne. The publication is a posthumous one. As the forward explains, Zechiel-Eckes began work on the project as early as the 1990s, but soon set it aside in favor of other projects. It has been left to Detlev Jasper to complete the introduction and bring the manuscript to press.²

After he had been confirmed in office, Siricius convened a Roman synod to assist him in answering Himerius's questions. The text of JK 255 nods only briefly to this 'conventus fratrum'. The accent lies rather on Roman primacy, here characterized, in the manner pioneered by Damasus, as inherited from Peter the Apostle. 'We bear the burdens of all who are weighed down', Siricius writes, 'or rather, the blessed apostle in us carries them—he who protects and maintains us in all things…as the heir of his office'.³ These are among the most widely received statements of the entire decretal.

Siricius first addresses congregational discipline. He forbids the rebaptism of Christians who have been baptized by Arians; like Novatians and other heretics, they are to be rejoined to the orthodox congregation 'solely by the invocation of the septiform spirit, through the imposition of the episcopal hand'.⁴ Also forbidden is the baptism of catechumens on Christmas, the feast of the Epiphany, and the feasts of the apostles and martyrs. The sacrament is reserved for Easter and Pentecost, with exceptions for infants and those near death. Apostates who seek...