These drawbacks were felt a long time back, and to this feeling we owe two attempts at a supplementary codification which were made in the 16th century, both of which are known under the name of Liber Septimus. The first “Liber septimus” of P. Mathieu. was of private origin, and had as its author Pierre Mathieu, the Lyons jurist (1563-1621); it appeared in 1590 at Lyons. It is a continuation of the Extravagantes communes, and includes a selection of papal constitutions, from Sixtus IV. (1471-1484) to Sixtus V. (1585-1590) inclusive, with the addition of a few earlier documents. It follows the order of the decretals. This collection has been of some service, and appears as an appendix in many editions of the Corpus juris; the chief reason for its failure is that it has no official sanction. The second attempt was official, but it came to nothing. It was connected with the movement of reform and revision which followed the council of Trent. Immediately after the publication of the official edition of the Corpus juris, Gregory XIII. appointed a committee of cardinals charged with the task of drawing up a Liber septimus. Sixtus V. hurried on its execution, which was of Clement VIII. rapidly proceeded with, mainly owing to Cardinal Pinelli, who submitted the draft of it to Clement VIII. The pope had this Liber VII. printed as a basis for further researches; but after long deliberations the volume was suppressed, and the idea of a fresh codification was abandoned. The collection included the decrees of the council of Trent, and a number of pontifical constitutions, arranged in the order of the titles of the decretals.[35] But even had it been promulgated, it is doubtful whether it would have improved the situation. It would merely have added another collection to the previous ones, which were already too voluminous, without resulting in any useful abrogations.
4. The Future Codification.—Neither Clement VIII. nor, at a later date, Benedict XIV., could have dreamt of the radical reform at present in course of execution. Instead of accumulating the texts of the laws in successive collections, Demand for codification. it is proposed entirely to recast the system of editing them. This codification in a series of short articles was suggested by the example of the French codes, the history of which during the 19th century is well known. From all quarters the Catholic episcopate had submitted to the Vatican council petitions in this sense. “It is absolutely clear,” said some French bishops, “and has for a long time past been universally acknowledged and asserted, that a revision and reform of the canon law is necessary and most urgent. As matters now stand, in consequence of the many and grave changes in human affairs and in society, many laws have become useless, others difficult or impossible to obey. With regard to a great number of canons, it is a matter of dispute whether they are still in force or are abrogated. Finally, in the course of so many centuries, the number of ecclesiastical laws has increased to such an extent, and these laws have accumulated in such immense collections, that in a certain sense we can well say: We are crushed beneath the laws, obruimur legibus. Hence arise infinite and inextricable difficulties which obstruct the study of canon law; an immense field for controversy and litigation; a thousand perplexities of conscience; and finally contempt for the laws.”[36] We know how the Vatican council had to separate without approaching the question of canonical reform; but this general desire for a recasting of the ecclesiastical code was taken up again on the initiative of Rome. On the 19th of March 1904, Decision of Pius X. Pius X. published a Motu proprio, “de ecclesiae legibus in unum redigendis.” After briefly reviewing the present condition of the canonical texts and collections, he pointed out its inconvenience, referred to the many requests from the episcopate, and decreed the preparation of a general code of canon law. This immense undertaking involved the codification of the entire canon law, drawing it up in a clear, short and precise form, and introducing any expedient modifications and reforms. For this purpose the pope appointed Method. a commission of cardinals, of which he himself became president; also a commission of “consultors” resident at Rome, which asked for a certain amount of assistance from canonists at various universities and seminaries. Further, the assembled bishops of each province were invited to give their opinion as to the points in which they considered the canon law might profitably be modified or abrogated. Two consultors had the duty of separately drawing up a preliminary plan for each title, these projects being twice submitted for the deliberation of the commission (or sub-commission) of consultors, the version adopted by them being next submitted to the commission of cardinals, and the whole finally sent up for the papal sanction. These commissions started work at the end of 1904.
Local Law.—The common law of the Roman Church cannot by itself uniformly regulate all the churches of the different nations; each of them has its own local law, which we must briefly mention here. In theory, this law Local law. has as its author the local ecclesiastical authorities, councils or bishops; but this is true only for laws and regulations which are in harmony with the common law, merely completing or defining it. But if it is a question of derogating from the common law, the authority of the Holy See must intervene to legalize these derogations. This intervention takes the form either of “indults,” i.e. graceful concessions granted at the request of the episcopate, or of special approbation of conciliary resolutions. It would, however, be impossible to mention any compilations containing only local law. Whether in the case of national or provincial councils, or of diocesan synods, the chief object of the decrees is to reinforce, define or apply the law; the measures which constitute a derogation have only a small place in them. It is, then, only in a limited sense that we can see a local canon law in the councils of the various regional churches. Having made this remark, we must distinguish between the countries which are still subject to the system of concordats and other countries.
In the case of the former, the local law is chiefly founded on the concordat (q.v.), including the derogations and privileges resulting from it. The chief thing to note is the existence, for these countries, of a civil-ecclesiastical Countries subject to concordats. law, that is to say, a body of regulations made by the civil authority, with the consent, more or less explicit, of the Church, about ecclesiastical matters, other than spiritual; these dispositions are chiefly concerned with the nomination or confirmation by the state of ecclesiastics to the most important benefices, and with the administration of the property of the Church; sometimes also with questions of jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, concerning the persons or property of the Church. It is plain that the agreements under the concordats have a certain action upon a number of points in the canonical laws; and all these points go to constitute the local concordatory law. This is the case for Austria, Spain, Portugal, Bavaria, the Prussian Rhine provinces, Alsace, Belgium, and, in America, Peru. Up to 1905 it was also the case in France, where the ancient local customs now continue, pending the reorganization of the Church without the concordat.
We do not imply that in other countries the Church can always find exemption from legislative measures imposed upon her by the civil authorities, for example, in Italy, Prussia and Russia; but here it is a situation de facto rather than de jure, which the Church tolerates for the sake of convenience; and these regulations only form part of the local canon law in a very irregular sense.
In other countries the episcopal assemblies lay down the local law. England has its council of Westminster (1852), the United States their plenary councils of Baltimore (1852, 1866, 1884), without mentioning the diocesan synods; and Other Countries. the whole of Latin America is ruled by the special law of its plenary council, held at Rome in 1899. The same is the case with the Eastern Churches united to the Holy See; following the example of the famous council of Lebanon for the Maronites, held in 1730, and that of Zamosc for the Ruthenians, in 1720, these churches, at the suggestion of Leo XIII., have drawn up in plenary assembly their own local law: the Syrians at Sciarfa in 1888; the Ruthenians at Leopol in 1891; and a little later, the Copts. The framing of local law will certainly be more clear and more easy when the general code of canon law has been published.
Bibliography.—For the texts and collections: the dissertations of Dom Coustant, De antiquis canonum collectionibus, deque variis epistolarum Rom. Pont, editionibus (Paris, 1721); P. de Marca, De veteribus collectionibus canonum (Paris, 1681}; the brothers Peter and Jerome Ballerini, De antiquis tum editis tum ineditis collectionibus et collectoribus canonum ad Gratianum usque (Venice, 1757). This is the best of all these works; it is reproduced in Migne, P.L., vol. 56; C. Seb. Berardi, De variis sacrorum canonum collectionibus ante Gratianum (Turin, 1752); P. Quesnel, De codice canonum Ecclesiae Romanae; de variis fidei libellis in antiquo Rom. Eccl. codice contentis; de primo usu codicis canonum Dionysii Exigui in Gallicanis regionibus (Paris, 1675; with the critical notes of the brothers Ballerini, also in Migne, loc. cit.); and finally, Florent, De methodo atque auctoritate collectionis Gratiani (Paris, 1679), and Antonio Agustin, archbishop of Tarragona, De emendatione Gratiani (Tarragona, 1586); these have all been brought together in Gallandi, De vetustis canonum collectionibus dissertationum sylloge (Venice, 1778). The most complete work on the texts up to the 9th century is F. Maassen, Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des canonischen Rechts im Abendlande, vol. i. (all that has yet appeared, Gratz, 1870). For the period between the False Decretals and Gratian, there is no work of this sort, but the materials have been put together and published in part by M.P. Fournier. After Gratian, the classic work is Schulte, Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des canonischen Rechts von Gratian bis auf die Gegenwart (3 vols., Stuttgart, 1875 et. seq.). Manuals for the study of the sources: Ph. Schneider, Die Lehre von den Kirchenrechtsquellen (Regensburg, 1892); F. Laurin, Introductio in Corpus juris canonici (Freiburg, 1889); Tardif, Histoire des sources du droit canonique (Paris, 1887). Most of the German manuals on canon law devote considerable space to the history of the sources: see Phillips, vol. ii (3rd ed., 1857; French translation by the abbé Crouzet); Vering, 3rd ed. (Freiburg, 1893); Schulte, Das katholische Kirchenrecht, pt. i. (Giessen, 1860), &c. For the Greek Church: Pitra, Juris ecclesiae graecorum historia et monumenta (Rome, 1864); the later history of the Greek law: Zachariae, Historiae juris graecorum delineatio (Heidelberg, 1839); Mortreuil, Histoire du droit byzantin (Paris, 1843-1846); the recent texts in the Conciliorum Collectio lacensis, vol. ii.; Acta et decreta s. conciliorum, quae ab episcopis rituum orientalium ab a. 1682 usque ad a. 1789 indeque ad a. 1869 sunt celebrata (Freiburg, 1876). Short manual of Institutions: Jos. Papp-Szilagyi, Enchiridion juris eccl. orientalis catholicae (Magno-Varadini, 1862). For recent canonical texts: Richter’s edition of the council of Trent (Leipzig, 1863); the Collectanea S.C. de Propaganda Fide (Rome, 1893); the Bullarium, a collection of papal acts and constitutions; the editions of Cocquelines (28 vols., Rome, 1733-1756), and of Cherubini (19 vols., Luxemburg, 1727-1758), which are better than the enlarged reprint of Turin, which was unfinished (it goes up to 1730). The official edition of the Bullarium of Benedict XIV. (4 vols., Rome, 1754-1758) has been reprinted several times and is of great importance; the continuation of the Bullarium since Benedict XIV. has been published by Barberi, Bullarii romani continuatio, in 20 vols., going up to the fourth year of Gregory XVI. Every year, since 1854, has been printed a collection of pontifical acts, Acta Pii IX., Acta Leonis XIII., &c., which are the equivalents of the Bullarium. Dictionaries: Durand de Maillane, Dictionnaire canonique (Paris, 1786), re-edited by André under the title, Cours alphabétique et méthodique de droit canonique, and by Wagner (Paris, 1894), has Gallican tendencies; Ferraris, Prompta bibliotheca canonica, &c., several new and enlarged editions; the best is that of Migne (1866), completed by Father Bucceroni, Ferraris Supplementum (Rome, 1899). Articles on canon law in Wetzer und Welte’s Kirchenlexicon (2nd ed., Freiburg, 1880 et seq.); Hauck, Realencyklopadie für prot. Theologie und Kirche (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1877-1888); Vacant-Mangenot’s Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, in course of publication (Paris, 1899 et seq.). Periodicals: Analecta juris pontificii, ed. by Mgr. Chaillot (1863-1889); Analecta ecclesiastica (since 1893); Acta Sanctae sedis (since 1865); Archiv fur kathol. Kirchenrecht (since 1857); Le Canoniste contemporain (since 1878).
(A. Bo.*)
Canon Law in England and in the Anglican Communion.—There were matters in which the local English and Irish canon law, even before the 16th century, differed from that obtaining on the western part of the European continent. Thus (1), it has been said that—whereas the continental canon law recognized a quadripartite division of Church revenue of common right between (a) the bishop, (b) the clergy, (c) the poor, (d) the fabric—the English law maintained a tripartite division—(a) clergy, (b) the poor, (c) the fabric. Lord Selborne (Ancient Facts and Fictions concerning Churches and Tithes, 2nd ed., 1892) denies that there was any division of tithe in England. (2) By the general canon law the burden of repairing the nave, as well as the chancel of the church, was upon the parson or rector who collected the whole tithe. But the custom of England transferred this burden to the parishioners, and some particular local customs (as in the city of London) placed even the burden of repair of the chancel on them. To meet this burden church rates were levied. (3) A church polluted by the shedding of blood, as by suicide or murder, was reconsecrated on the continent. In England the custom was (and is) simply to “reconcile.” (4) A much more important difference, if the decision of the Irish court of exchequer chamber upheld in the House of Lords, where the peers were equally divided, correctly stated the English Canon law (Reg. v. Millis, 10 Cl. & Fin., 534) was in regard to the essentials of marriage. By the general Western canon law before the council of Trent, the parties themselves were said to be the “ministers of the Sacrament” in the case of holy matrimony. The declared consent of the parties to take each other there and then constituted at once (although irregularly) holy matrimony. The presence of priest or witnesses was not necessary. In Reg. v. Millis, however, it was held that in England it was always otherwise and that here the presence of a priest was necessary. High authorities, however, have doubted the historical accuracy of this decision. (5) The addition of houses of priests to the provincial synods seems peculiar to England and Ireland.