Quinque compilationes antiquae

The Quinque compilationes antiquae, or "Five Ancient Compilations," were significant collections of canon law that emerged in the Roman Catholic Church. These compilations, developed between the 12th and 13th centuries, aimed to organize and codify papal laws and decisions, known as decretals.1

The first of these, Bernard of Pavia's Breviarium extravagantium, structured the material into five books, following a system inspired by Justinian's codification. This organizational framework, covering topics like judge, trial, clergy, marriage, and crime, became a standard for subsequent collections. These compilations formed the basis for later, more comprehensive works like the Liber extra and the Liber sextus, which together with other collections, eventually formed the Corpus Juris Canonici (Corpus of Canon Law). This body of law was the primary source of ecclesiastical legislation until it was superseded in 1917.12