ok so
this is the term for an entire set of fraudulent, interlocking, documents purporting to be canon law of the catholic church written in what was basically france in the early part of the 9th century CE. i started poking into this (??) and it seems debate STILL RAGES about who wrote what, and where (and why)
for instance!
https://pseudo-isidore.com/
they ^ would likely string me up for simplifying like this but as far as i can tell the 'why' was, depending on how you looked at it, either an attempt by some fringe monks sympathetic to the pope to grab back power that had gradually accreted to the more secular side of the church - bishops who administrated land, collected taxes etc - or a misguided attempt to act on a passionate belief that the church should shun temporal power.
so... do YOU have an opinion on the pseudo-isidorian decretals??
or perhaps other long-ago hoaxes about which tempestuous argument still swirls
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 10 August 2019 22:33 (four years ago) link
that's always the way with forgeries, you think they're going to bolster your immediate point and nobody cares until some investiture controversy erupts long after the salian dynasty has taken control of frankish temporal power, and nothing you can do about it because at that point you're dead
― Abigail, Wife of Preserved Fish (rushomancy), Monday, 12 August 2019 01:06 (four years ago) link