Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals - Authorship

Authorship

Much of the work is attributed to "Isidore Mercator", but this is almost certainly a pseudonym created by conflating the names of Isidore of Seville and Marius Mercator, both of whom were well-respected ecclesiastical scholars. The general agreement is that the work had its origin in the Kingdom of the Franks. The forger's main object was to emancipate bishops, not only from the secular power, but also from the influence of archbishops and synods, partly by exalting the papal supremacy.

The author of a rather singular, voluminous section, however, identifies himself as one Benedictus Levita ("Benedict the Levite", or "the Deacon"), and his Capitularia Benedicti Levitae do not deal with early church and papal letters as the rest, but with forged Capitularies on religious and theological matters by various Carolingian rulers, most notably Charlemagne, who take on the role of providing the forger's false authority. It is still under dispute among researchers whether the differently structured and written Capitularia Benedicti Levitae slightly pre-dates and, in fact, originally inspired the authors of the full False Decretals, or whether all the forgeries were fabricated simultaneously.

The overall work probably had the help of several hands but was clearly under the editorial control of a very gifted and, for the day, extraordinarily learned man. While an exact identification of the compilers and forgers is probably impossible, Klaus Zechiel-Eckes has proven that they used manuscripts from the monastic library of Corbie. Zechiel-Eckes has gathered some evidence that an abbot of Corbie, Paschasius Radbertus (abbot 842-847), might be one of those responsible for the forgery. However, it appears safe to assume that the forgers worked in the ecclesiastical province of Reims, and the complex as a whole was more or less completed by 847-852 (the earliest known reference to the text was in 852). It is possible that its composer was ordained illegally by Ebbo, archbishop of Reims, during his brief, but unlawful, reinstatement (840-41).