Decretal Definition

Decretal Sentence Examples

• Having failed to satisfy the king, he left England on the 26th of October 1529, after his baggage had been searched at Dover to find the Decretal, which, however, had been burnt.

• He brought with him a secret document, the Decretal, which defined the law and left the legates to decide the question of fact; but this important letter was to be shown only to Henry and Wolsey.

• Several of the decretal letters of Siricius are extant, in which, at the request of certain groups of Western bishops, he sets forth the rules of ecclesiastical discipline.

• This, as Wolsey saw, was quite inadequate for the purpose in view; and he again instructed Gardiner, while thanking the pope for the commission actually granted, to press him once more by very urgent pleas, to send the desired decretal on, even if the latter was only to be shown to the king and himself and then destroyed.

• Although we find Siricius a year later writing to the African Church on this same subject in tones rather of persuasion than of command, yet the beginning of compulsory sacerdotal celibacy in the Western Church may be conveniently dated from his decretal of A.D.