Pseudo-Izydor jako architekt fikcji prawnej: fałszywe listy przednicejskich biskupów Rzymu w "Collectio Decretalium" (IX w.)
Pseudo-Isidore as Architect of Legal Fiction: The False Letters of the Ante-Nicene Bishops of Rome in the "Collectio Decretalium" (9th Century)

Summary/Abstract: This article addresses the problem of the lack of institutional protection for bishops against arbitrary secular jurisdiction in the early Middle Ages and analyzes how Carolingian forgeries responded to this deficit. The analysis is structured along three axes: reconstructing a fictional hierarchy featuring Roman primacy, examining the multilayered system of episcopal immunity, and demonstrating sacralization strategies through liturgical and patristic anachronisms. A philological and historical method is applied, utilizing textual criticism to identify semantic shifts and H. Fuhrmann’s methodological distinction between the intent (Zweck) and effect (Wirkung) of the forgery. The main conclusion is that the forger did not write a treatise on papal primacy, but instead built a pragmatic defensive shield for Frankish bishops, instrumentalizing the primacy itself. The ancient sources investigated are the pseudoepigraphic letters of pre-Nicene popes from the Collectio Decretalium of Pseudo-Isidore, which are confronted with authentic texts of Church Fathers (e.g., Leo the Great and Gregory the Great). The article contributes to research on Christian antiquity by revealing the internal architecture of the forger’s logic and the mechanisms of instrumentalizing ancient apostolic authority to create a medieval legal fiction.

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