Thank you, Maria, for that excellent post and addressing many of the issues - you even managed to include a lot of answers to the questions or uncertainties I posted earlier :-)

One thing I have to ask you, as our legal expert: I have heard that the Pontifices were able to make regulations or laws when needed. I think the proper name is decreta pontificum - at least it sounds logical. Do you have any examples of these "decrees" and their nature? How big do you think a power such as this was - I mean, were the laws of the Pontiffs followed?

Thank you again! I hope we get a discussion going on this :-)