decretal
nounEtymology From Middle French decretal, from Late Latin dēcrētālis, from Latin decretum.
1
Catholicism, Christianity, Roman Catholicism A papal decree, particularly one derived from an ecclesiastical letter.
- Or els is thys Goddis law, Decrees or decretals, Or holy sinodals, Or els provincyals, Thus within the wals Of holy church to deale[…]?c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 65, lines 130–135:
- DECRETALS... are the answers sent by the Pope to applications made to him as head of the church, chiefly by bishops, but also by synods, and even private individuals, for guidance in cases involving points of doctrine or discipline... From the 4th century onwards they formed the most prolific source of canon law. Decretals... ought, properly speaking, to be distinguished, on the one hand from constitutions... enacted by the Pope sua sponte without reference to any particular case, and on the other hand from rescripts... which apply only to special circumstances or individuals, and constitute no general precedent. But this nomenclature is not strictly observed.1878, "Decretals" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. VII, p. 22
2
Archaic Any decree or pronounced instruction.
- […] picturals / Of Magistrates, of courts, of tribunals, / Of commen wealthes, of states, of pollicy, / Of lawes, of iudgements, and of decretals […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC: