TABLE OF CONTENTS CH. I. NAME AND DEFINITION OF LAW IN GENERAL AND CH. II. THE SCIENCE OF CANON LAW AND ITS IMPOR- ART. 2. Spurious Collections of the Ninth Century The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals ART. 3. Decretales Bonifacii VIII (1298) ART. 6. The "Corpus Juris Canonici CONSTITUTION "PROVIDENTISSIMA" OF BENE- DICT XV, PROMULGATING THE NEW CODE THE NEW CODE OF CANON LAW PART I INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I NAME AND DEFINITION OF LAW IN GENERAL AND CANON LAW IN PARTICULAR The Latin word jus (from jurare, to swear, or jussum, command) has a double meaning or sense: a) subjectively, it signifies right, or "the moral power to have, to do, or to require something from another (facultas moralis inviolabilis aliquid habendi, agendi, exigendi), as we say to give to every one his due (suum cuique); b) in the objective sense, jus denotes norm or law either in the singular or plural (complex of laws), for instance, the law of celibacy, civil law, canon law. This latter meaning is attached to the "eternal law," since "the very idea of government of things in God the Ruler of the universe has the nature of a law,' ," and every law, divine or human, is but an irradiance from the eternal law, as all human laws bear the character of laws only in as far as they approach, more or less, this prototype. Canon Law (jus canonicum, derived from the Greek Kávov, i. e. norm or rule), as a technical term occurs since 1 S. Theol., I-II, q. 91, a. i f. 1 2 the twelfth century, this nomenclature being exclusively reserved for the laws of the Church, whilst lex (vópos) was applied to civil laws. Consequently the interpreters of ecclesiastical law were called canonistae, those of civil law, legistae. DEFINITION.-Canon Law may therefore be defined as "the complex of rules which direct the exterior order of the Church to its proper end." EXPLANATION.-a) In this definition the laws of the entire Church only are, per se, considered, viz. those laws which touch upon the whole body as such and emanate from the supreme authority (jus commune). Hence laws made for a particular portion of the Church or its members are outside our subject except in so far as they form part and parcel of the body of common law. However, since these particular or special rules need the explicit or implicit consent of the supreme lawgiver, and rest on the interpretation of law in general, it is evident that even these particular laws must, to some extent at least, be taken into consideration. b) The purpose of Canon Law, as of all law properly so called, is the establishment and maintenance of exterior order. The Church forms an organized body which has its special and proper functions. In a certain sense, she is a body politic with a working to the outside. Hence her laws, either in regard to the hierarchic ramifications, or in relation of member to member, are concerned not directly with internal acts ("de internis non judicat praetor"), but with the public or exterior order of the Church at large (finis proximus juris canonici). c) However, the end of the Church being mainly 2 Summa Stephani Tornacensis, apud Schulte, Gesch. d. Quellen u. Lit. d. can. Rechts, 1875, I, 29. |