GRATIAN, a famous Benedictine monk, in the 12th century, was born at Chiusi in Tuscany, and employed above 24 years in composing a work, entitled Decretum, or Concordantia Discordantium Canonum, because he there endeavoured to reconcile the canons which seemed contradictory to each other. This work was first printed at Mentz in 1472. As he is frequently mistaken, in taking one canon of one council, or one passage of one father for another, and has often cited false decretals, several authors have endeavoured to correct his faults; and chiefly Anthony Augustine, in his excellent work entitled De emendatione Gratiani. To the decretals of Gratian, the popes principally owed the great authority they exercised in the 13th and following centuries.