Pierre Coustant - Papal Letters

Papal Letters

Immediately upon the publication of Augustine's works in 1700, Coustant was entrusted by his superiors with the editing of a complete collection of the letters of the popes from Clement I to Innocent III (c. 88-1216). Very little had been done in this direction before.

There were, indeed, the papal decretals from Clement I to Gregory VII, collected by Cardinal Antonio Carafa and published by Antonio d'Aquino in 1591, but they were incomplete and their chronological order was frequently incorrect. There were also the Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius and the Concilia antiqua Galliae of the Jacques Sirmond and other works containing scattered letters of the popes; but no one had attempted to make a complete collection of papal letters, much less to sift the spurious from the authentic, to restore the original texts and to order the letters chronologically.

After devoting more than twenty years to this undertaking, Coustant was able to publish the first volume in 1721. It contains the letters from the year 67 to the year 440, and is entitled Epistolae Romanorum Pontificum et quae ad eos scriptae sunt a S. Clemente I usque ad Innocentium III, quotquot reperiri potuerunt..."(Paris 1721). In the extensive preface perhaps of 150 pages Coustant explains the origin, meaning and extent of the papal primacy and critically examines the existing collections of canons and papal letters.

The letters of each pope are preceded by a historical introduction and furnished with copious notes, while the spurious letters are collected in the appendix. Coustant had gathered a large amount of material for succeeding volumes, but he died the same year in which the first volume was published.

Simon Mopinot, who had assisted Coustant in the preparation of the first volume, was entrusted with the continuation of the work, but he also died (11 October, 1724) before another volume was ready for publication. About twelve years later, Ursin Durand undertook to continue the work; in his case the Jansenist controversy in which he became involved prevented the publication of the material he had prepared.

Finally the French Revolution and the dissolution of the Maurist Congregation gave the death-blow to the great undertaking. A new edition of Coustant's volume was brought out by Schönemann (Göttingen, 1796); a continuation, based chiefly on Coustant's manuscripts and containing the papal letters from 461-521, was published by Thiel (Braunsberg, 1867). There are extant in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris fourteen large folio volumes containing the material gathered by Coustant and his Benedictine continuators.

Coustant also took part in the controversy occasioned by Mabillon's De Re Diplomatica between the Jesuit Barthélemy Germon (1663-1718) and the Maurist Benedictines. In two treatises he defends himself and his confrères against Germon who disputed the genuineness of some sources used in the Benedictine edition of the works of St. Hilary and St. Augustine.