Charles Dumoulin's Annotations in a Lyon Edition of the Decretum

Abstract

In 1554 Ioannes Pidaeius, a printer in Lyon, published an edition of Gratian's Decretum. The most notable aspect of this edition was the addition of marginal annotations by the jurist Charles Dumoulin (Carolus Molinaeus) on both the text and the Ordinary Gloss. Dumoulin also numbered the canons, but not the paleae, in the Decretum.2 Dumoulin's annotations, signed ‘C. M.’, combined history, jurisprudence and Gallican ecclesiology. They also showed signs of a sympathy for Reformed theology, which the author had developed by 1540.3 The author of the notes participated in efforts to correct Gratian's text, but he also used history to undermine papal power in the church.4 Dumoulin's controversial opinions led to the edition being placed on the Index together with orders that those annotations be obliterated. As has been noted, efforts to remove these annotations were not universally successful.5 Scholarship on Dumoulin has not treated these marginal notes systematically, nor has it given adequate