decretalist

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noun

A member of a 13th-century school of interpretation of canon law that emphasized the decretals (letters issued by the Popes on matters of church discipline) in preference to the Decretum Gratiani (1141), which their rivals, the decretists, favoured.

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Meanings

noundecretalist (plural decretalists)

plural decretalists

  1. historicalA member of a 13th-century school of interpretation of canon law that emphasized the decretals (letters issued by the Popes on matters of church discipline) in preference to the Decretum Gratiani (1141), which their rivals, the decretists, favoured.

    If the decretalists were concerned that prospective spouses be able to carry out their moral obligations, they were no less interested in preserving spousely rights after the conjugal knot was tied.

    1990, Julia Bolton Holloway, Constance S. Wright, Joan Bechtold, Equally in God's Image: Women in the Middle Ages, page 135

Origin

From decretal + -ist.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

decretalist. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/decretalist

MLA

“decretalist.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/decretalist. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “decretalist,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/decretalist.

Source: decretalist on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.