Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A decree, especially a papal letter giving a decision on a point or question of canon law.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to or of the nature of a decree; containing a decree or decrees.
  • Done according to a decree; decreed; fatal.
  • noun An authoritative order or decree; specifically, a letter of the pope determining some point or question in ecclesiastical law.
  • noun A book of decrees or edicts; a body of laws; specifically [capitalized], in the plural, the second part of the canon law: so called because it contains the decrees of sundry popes determining points of ecclesiastical law.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Appertaining to a decree; containing a decree.
  • noun (R. C. Ch.) An authoritative order or decree; especially, a letter of the pope, determining some point or question in ecclesiastical law. The decretals form the second part of the canon law.
  • noun (Canon Law) The collection of ecclesiastical decrees and decisions made, by order of Gregory IX., in 1234, by St. Raymond of Pennafort.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Pertaining to a decree.
  • noun A papal decree.
  • noun Any decree or pronounced instruction.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French decretale, from Late Latin dēcrētālis, fixed by decree, from Latin dēcrētum, principle, decision; see decree.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French decretal, from Latin dēcrētālis.

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Examples

  • When pontifical enactments take the form of responses they are called decretal epistles.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 4: Clandestinity-Diocesan Chancery 1840-1916 1913

  • In the first section of the decretal is a list of the canonical books of the Bible, as in the

    A Source Book for Ancient Church History Joseph Cullen Ayer 1905

  • This right of a married person to bonk on demand could take priority over other duties and was such serious business that, until a decretal from Pope Innocent III (1198-216), a man needed his wife's permission to go on a Crusade because without him home she might be led to commit adultery.

    Jane Minogue: The Ever-Changing Definition of Marriage 2009

  • At length came one Gregory IX., an enemy to emperors and kings, who, by a decree, made the bonds of marriage indissoluble; and his decretal became the law of Europe.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • This same decretal of Pope Gregory II., which permits bigamy in certain cases, denies conjugal rights forever to the boys and girls, whom their parents have devoted to the Church in their infancy.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • Pope Honorius, the third of that name, forbade by a decretal from that time forward the method of choosing bishops by lot.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • This decretal considers cases where there is no urgent need.

    The Political Ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas Dino Bigongiari 1997

  • The issue in decretal theology was not history and eternity but the orders of eternity.

    Dangerous Topic Libolt, Clayton 1982

  • Moved by these or other reasons, John condemned the Franciscan propositions in 1323 with the decretal Cum inter nonnullos.

    The Name of the Rose Eco, Umberto 1980

  • I sensed he must have been able to assume a far harsher expression when, in 1311, the Council of Vienne, with the decretal Exivi de paradiso, had deposed Franciscan superiors hostile to the Spirituals, but had charged the latter to live in peace within the order; and this champion of renunciation had not accepted that shrewd compromise and had fought for the institution of a separate order, based on principles of maximum strictness.

    The Name of the Rose Eco, Umberto 1980

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