Proclaimed on the fifth day before the Kalends of October (Sept. 27) at Constantinople, in the Consulship of Dalmatius and Zenophilas.[30]
(c) Canon Law
About 1142 (the year of Abelard's death) Gratian, a monk of Bologna, doubtless influenced by the school of Roman Law in that city, made a compilation of the Canon Law, which included the canons or rules governing the Church in its manifold activities,—"its relations with the secular power, its own internal administration, or the conduct of its members." Hitherto Canon Law had been regarded as merely a subdivision of Theology, just as Roman Law had been considered a branch of Rhetoric. It now became an independent subject,—further addition to the body of higher studies. As an influence upon the development of universities it was not less important than the Corpus Juris Civilis.
The compilation made by Gratian was added to in later generations, and the whole body of church law was known in the fifteenth century as the Corpus Juris Canonici (Body of Canon Law). Its main divisions are:
1. The Decree of Gratian (Decretum Gratiani) in three parts, published c. 1142. Part I contains one hundred and one distinctions (distinctiones) or divisions, which treat of matters relating to ecclesiastical persons and offices. Dist. XXXVII is translated below. Part II contains thirty-six cases (causae) each of which is divided into questions (quaestiones). These questions deal with problems which may arise in the administration of the canon law. Part III contains five distinctions which deal with the ritual and the sacraments of the church. Under each distinction, or question, are arranged the canons—the views of ecclesiastical authorities—on the matter under discussion.
2. The Decretals (Decretales), in five books, published by Pope
Gregory IX in 1234.
3. The Sixth Book (Liber Sextus), a supplement to the Decretals
by Pope Boniface VIII, 1298.
4. The Constitutions of Clementine (Constitutiones
Clementinae), 1317.
5. Several collections of papal laws not included in those above, known by the general title of Extravagantes, i.e., laws extra vagantes, or outside of, the four compilations just mentioned.
Among all these the Decretum of Gratian was the great innovation which first marked out Canon Law as a distinct field of learning, separate from both Theology and Roman Law. It was written as a text-book; "it was one of those great text-books which take the world by storm." It created an entirely new class of students, separate from those devoted to Arts, Theology, Roman Law, and Medicine,—just as the development of Engineering and other new professional studies have created new groups of university students to-day,—and thereby increased the resort to the universities.