The Decretals of Gregory IX (), also collectively called the , are a source of medieval Catholic canon law. In 1230, Pope Gregory IX ordered his chaplain and confessor, St. Raymond of Penyafort, a Dominican, to form a new canonical collection destined to replace the , which was the chief collection of legal writings for the church for over 90 years. It has been said that the pope used these letters to emphasize his power over the Universal Church. Political circumstances During Gregory's papacy, the church had established a prominent role in the temporal and spiritual affairs of Europe. Following his predecessor, Pope Honorius III, Gregory maintained papal supremacy. Nevertheless, the utility of a new collection was so evident that there may be no other motives than those the pope gives in the Bull "Rex pacificus" of 5 September 1234, viz., the inconvenience of referring to several collections containing decisions most diverse and sometimes contradictory, exhibiting in some cases gaps and in others tedious length; moreover, on several matters the law was uncertain. Work of St. Raymond The was a series of five of these collections of pontifical legislation from the of Gratian (c. 1150) to the pontificate of Honorius III (1150–1227). Raymond executed the work in about four years, and followed in it the method of the . He borrowed from them the order of the subject-matter, the division into five books, of the books into titles and of the titles into chapters. Of the 1971 chapters the Decretals of Gregory IX contain, 1771 are from the , 191 are from Gregory IX himself, seven from decretals of Innocent III not inserted in the former collections, and two are of unknown origin. They are arranged, generally, according to the order of the ancient collections, i.e., each title opens with the chapters of the first collection, followed by those of the second, and so on in regular order. Next come those of Innocent III, and finally those of Gregory IX. Almost all the rubrics, or headings of the titles, have also been borrowed from these collections, but several have been modified as regards detail. This method considerably lightened St. Raymond's task. Editorial work Pope Gregory IX's work involved the compilation of documents from former collections, modifying some decisions whilst discarding others. Additionally, Gregory omitted parts when he considered it prudent to do so, filled in the gaps, and cleared up