The first, which was made a little while after the Collection of Gratian, was composed by Ber∣nard Provost of Pavia, and Bishop of Fayence, who collected the Constitutions of the Popes since Gratian, and particularly those of Alexander the Third, and Lucius the Third, and ends at Celestin the Third.
Some time after three persons undertook to make a Collection of the Decretals of the Popes which were omitted by Bernard, or written since his time: Gilbert, Alanus, and John Gallus of Volterra. That of the last was the largest and best, and it is that which is counted for the se∣cond. It contains some Letters of the Popes omitted by Bernard, those of Celestin the Third, and the first of Innocent the Third. 'Tis thought that Alanus's is that which is inserted among the Councils after the third General Council of Lateran.
The third Collection was began by Bernard of Compostella, but the Romans being offended that a Stranger should meddle with that Work, desired Pope Innocent to have it done by his Order. Peter of Benevento, Deacon and Secretary to the Pope, was chosen out for the Business, and composed it out of the twelve first Books of this Pope's Letters, and it was published in the Pope's name.
The fourth Collection was made five years after by the order of the same Pope. It contains the Canons of the fourth General Council of Lateran, and the other Decretals made since that Council. These four antient Collections with their Commentators, have been presented to the publick by Antonius Augustinus, and printed at Paris by Cramoisy in 1621.
The fifth Collection is composed of the Letters of Honorius the Third, of whom we are speak∣ing, who caused it to be made and presented to himself by Tancredus Archdeacon of Bologn, whom he commanded to receive it, and get it received as well in Schools as Ecclesiastical Tribu∣nals. This was published by Ciro Professor of the Canon Law, and Chancellor of the Universi∣ty of Tholouse, and printed in that City with learned Comments in the year 1645.
Monsieur du Chesne had the Manuscript Register of Honorius the Third, some of whose Letters he published in the Fifth Tome of the Historians of France. We find three Letters of this Pope in the Collection of the Councils, in the last of which he abolishes the Avows of Churches. There are three more too in the same place about the Primacy of Toledo, and three more which concern the Order of Minor Brothers in the Collection of Vaddingus. Monsieur Baluze too has given us some in the second Tome of his Miscellany Works. Lastly, we find ten Bulls of this Pope in the last Bullary, of which the first is a Confirmation of the Laws of the Emperor Fre∣derick, and the others contain the Confirmation of the Rules of divers religious Orders, and particularly those of the Minor Brothers, and the Carmelites, and of the Privileges of Citeaux, and the Canonization of St. Laurence Archbishop of Dublin.
Cardinal Hugolin succeeded Honorius the Third, and took the name of GREGORY the Ninth; he was of Anagni, descended of the Illustrious Family of the Earls of Signi. He had been made Cardinal Bishop of Ostia by Innocent the Third, and Chief of the Embassy for the Crusade un∣der that Pope, and under his Successor Honorius the Third; an Employ which gained him a great deal of Credit and Authority: so that it was no wonder that the first thing he did after his Election, was to press the Emperor Frederick and the rest of the Crosses to go for the Holy Land, and that he used the Sword of Excommunication against this Emperor for putting off his Voyage. We shall not here repeat what we have before spoken of his dealings with the Em∣peror, which were at last the cause of his Death, that fell out on the 30th of September 1241.
The Letters of this Pope are much better written than the greatest part of the Letters of any of the Popes of that time. There are a great many about his Differences with Frederick; others against Hereticks; some to St. Louis King of France and the Queen his Mother about the Differences of that Prince with the King of England; against the Albigenses, and in favour of some Bishops of France. This is the Subject of one and thirty Letters of this Pope, which are in the Collection of the Councils. There are ninety seven of his in Vaddingus, and a great number be∣sides in the Ecclesiastical History of Rainaldus, who has amass'd them almost all together. The great Bullary furnishes us with a dozen, among which are the Bulls of the Canonization of St. Francis, of St. Anthony of Padua, of St. Dominick, and of St. Elizabeth. Father Dachery has published thirteen of them in the third Tome of his Spicilegium. Lastly, there are many Fragments of his Decretal Letters in the Collection of five Books of Decretals which he had made by Raimundus of Pennafort, and which he approved of, forbidding the use of any other Collecti∣on in the Schools and Ecclesiastical Tribunals, or the making of any other without an express order from the Holy See.
Thirty days after the Death of Gregory the Ninth, Godfrey of Chastillon a Frenchman, Cardi∣nal of St. Sabina, was by his singular Piety and compleat Learning recommended to the Pope∣dom, and took the name of CELESTIN the Fourth: but he enjoyed it but eighteen days, at the end of which he died, overloaded with old Age and Infirmities, so that we must not wonder we have no Letters of his.
After his Death the Holy See was vacant for about nineteen months, and then Sinibaud Cardi∣nal of the Title of St Laurence, was chosen Pope the 24th of June in the year 1243. and took the name of INNOCENT the Fourth, and was consecrated at Anagni the 28th of the same month. He lived in the Holy See three years and some months, and so has left us many Letters written during his Popedom. There are nineteen of them in the Collection of Councils, without count∣ing those four that are in the General Council of Lyons. In the tenth, to his Legate in Cyprus, he resolves divers Questions concerning some Contests between the Bishops of the Greek and