Definition
A collection of decretals and constitutions issued by or attributed to Pope Clement V, compiled and published in 1317 by his successor, Pope John XXII. The Clementines form one of the component parts of the Corpus Juris Canonici, the body of canon law that governed the Western Church through the medieval and early modern periods. The collection draws from two sources: the personal epistles and constitutions of Clement V himself, and the decrees issued by the Council of Vienne (1311–1312), which Clement convened. Clement V died in 1314 before completing publication; John XXII issued the collection in its final form three years later. Together with the Decretum of Gratian, the Decretals of Gregory IX, the Liber Sextus of Boniface VIII, and the Extravagantes, the Clementines constitute the classical canon law library that trained canonists worked from for centuries.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Plural of "clementine," a variety of small, seedless mandarin orange.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): No entry — the fruit sense postdates this edition.
The gap here is total. In legal and ecclesiastical research contexts, "Clementines" refers exclusively to papal legislation, not fruit. A researcher encountering the term in any pre-modern legal, ecclesiastical, or canonical source should immediately read it in the canonical sense. The two meanings share only a proper-name origin (both derive from the name Clement) and have no substantive overlap.
Common Confusion
The Clementines are sometimes loosely described as "decretals of Clement V," which is partially accurate but technically imprecise: the collection also incorporates conciliar decrees from Vienne that were not personal papal pronouncements. Researchers should not conflate the Clementines with the Extravagantes Clementis V, a separate set of Clement V materials that circulated outside the official collection. The two bodies of text traveled independently in manuscript tradition and were treated as distinct sources in canonical argument.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in medieval ecclesiastical law, church-state relations, or the history of canon law will encounter citations to the Clementines as a live authority in legal and theological argument from 1317 through the Council of Trent and beyond. References appear in the standard citation shorthand of the Corpus Juris Canonici: "Clem." followed by a title and chapter designation.
Two traps arise in historical sources. First, the death-date of Clement V is recorded in Bouvier as 1814, which is a manifest error — Clement V died in 1314. Researchers relying on Bouvier for historical background should note this typo and not propagate it. Second, because the Clementines were published by John XXII rather than Clement V, some sources attribute the collection to John XXII, which can cause confusion when tracing the authority behind specific decrees. The content is Clement's (and Vienne's); the promulgation is John's.
For Law Mind corpus researchers: the Clementines appear in sources touching medieval ecclesiastical courts, the jurisdictional boundary between canon and common law, clerical discipline, heresy proceedings, and the authority of church councils relative to popes. Any research path that runs through the Corpus Juris Canonici will pass through this collection.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the essential facts: the collection derives from Pope Clement V, was published by John XXII in 1317, and belongs to the canon law tradition. Black's (both editions) situates the Clementines within "canon law" without elaboration. Bouvier adds the useful detail that the collection draws on both Clement's personal constitutions and the decrees of the Council of Vienne — a distinction the Black's entries omit. Bouvier also notes Clement's death as the reason for the publication delay, though as noted above, Bouvier's date (1814) is erroneous.
Black's 2nd edition appends a cross-reference to Clement's Inn and the Inns of Chancery, which is entirely unrelated to the Clementines as a legal source. The juxtaposition is alphabetical coincidence, not substantive connection.
None of the three dictionaries situates the Clementines within the broader architecture of the Corpus Juris Canonici or explains how canonists actually cited the collection. Researchers needing that context should consult specialized histories of canon law rather than rely on these brief entries.
Jurisdictional Note
The Clementines operated as binding authority within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church. In England, they carried persuasive authority in ecclesiastical courts alongside the broader Corpus Juris Canonici until the English Reformation progressively displaced Roman canon law. Their relevance in common law research is indirect but real: disputes over ecclesiastical court jurisdiction, benefit of clergy, and related matters often turned on canonical sources including the Clementines.