GRATIAN, a famous Benedictine monk of the twelfth century, was born at Chiusi in Tuscany. He employed above twenty-four years in composing a work entitled Decretum, vel 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. But as the learned Benedictine has frequently fallen into mistakes, both in regard to
the canons and the fathers, and has often cited false decretals, several authors have endeavoured to correct his errors; particularly Anthony Augustin, in his excellent work entitled De Emendatione Gratiani. To the decretals of Gratian the popes principally owed the great authority which they exercised in the thirteenth and succeeding centuries.