Legal history of the Catholic Church

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Catholic Church utilizes the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the

canon law can be divided into four periods: the jus antiquum, the jus novum, the jus novissimum and the Code of Canon Law.[2] In relation to the Code, history can be divided into the jus vetus (all law before the Code) and the jus novum (the law of the Code, or jus codicis).[2]
Eastern canon law developed separately.

Latin canon law

Jus antiquum

The most ancient collections of canonical legislation are certain very early Apostolic documents, known as the

Didascalia, or "Teaching of the Apostles"; the Apostolic Canons and Apostolic Constitutions. These collections have never had any official value, no more than any other collection of this first period. However, the Apostolic Canons and, through it, the Apostolic Constitutions, were influential for a time in that later collections would draw upon these earliest sources of Church law.[3]

It was in the East, after Constantine I's

Nomocanons, or compilations of civil laws affecting religious matters (nomos) and ecclesiastical laws (kanon). One such mixed collection is dated in the 6th century and has been erroneously attributed to John the Scholastic; another of the 7th century was rewritten and much enlarged by the schismatical ecumenical patriarch Photius
(883).

In the Western Church one collection of canons, the Collectio Dionysiana, exercised an influence far beyond the limits of the country in which it was composed. This collection was the work of

Adrian I to Charlemagne in 774 and therefore known today as the Collectio Dionysio-Hadriana
.

Besides the Dionysiana, Italy also produced two 5th-century Latin translations of the Greek synods known as the Corpus canonum Africano-Romanum and Collectio prisca, both of which are now lost though large portions of them survive in two very large Italian collections known as the

penitentials, and were often rather short and simple, most likely because they were meant as handbooks for the use of confessors. There were many such books circulating in Europe from the seventh to the eleventh century, each penitential containing rules indicating exactly how much penance was required for which sins. In various ways these penitentials, mainly Insular in origin, came to affect the larger canon law collections in development on the continent.[7]

Iberia (i.e. Spain) possessed the Capitula Martini, compiled about 572 by Martin, Bishop of Braga (in Portugal), and the immense and influential Collectio Hispana dating from about 633, attributed in the 9th century to

Yves of Chartres
(died 1115 or 1117); the Liber de misericordia et justitia of Algerus of Liège, who died in 1132; the Collection in 74 Titles – all collections which Gratian made use of in the compilation of his Decretum.

Jus Novum

The period of canonical history known as the Jus Novum ("new law") or middle period covers the time from Gratian to the Council of Trent (mid-12th century–16th century).[2]

The various conciliar canons and papal decrees were gathered together into collections, both unofficial and official. In the year 1000, there was no book that had attempted to summarized the whole body of canon law, to systematize it in whole or in part.[8] There were, however, many collections of the decrees of councils and great bishops. These collections usually only had regional force and were usually organized chronologically by type of document (e.g. letters of popes, canons of councils, etc.), or occasionally by general topic.[8] Before the late 11th century, canon law was highly decentralized, depending on many different codifications and sources, whether of local councils, ecumenical councils, local bishops, or of the Bishops of Rome.[8]

The first truly systematic collection was assembled by the

papal legislation was published in periodic volumes called Bullaria
.

Johannes Gratian was a monk who taught theology at a monastery in

body of canon law upon which a greater legal structure was built.[12][clarification needed] Before Gratian there was no "jurisprudence of canon law" (system of legal interpretation and principles). Gratian is the founder of canonical jurisprudence, which merits him the title "Father of Canon Law".[14]

The combination of logical, moral, and political elements contributed to a systematization that was quite different from a merely doctrinal or dogmatic analysis of legal rules, however complex and however coherent. The canon law as a system was more than rules; it was a process, a dialectical process of adapting rules to new situations. This was inevitable if only because of the limits imposed upon its jurisdiction, and the consequent competition which it faced from the secular legal systems that coexisted with it.[15]

In the thirteenth century, the Roman Church began to collect and organize its canon law, which after a millennium of development had become a complex and difficult system of interpretation and cross-referencing. The official collections were the Liber Extra (1234) of Pope

John XXII. These were addressed to the universities by papal letters at the beginning of each collection, and these texts became textbooks for aspiring canon lawyers. In 1582 a compilation was made of the Decretum, Extra, the Sext, the Clementines and the Extravagantes (that is, the decretals of the popes from Pope John XXII to Pope Sixtus IV
).

Jus Novissimum

After the

Justinian, once enjoyed in the Roman Empire. A private individual, Pierre Mathieu of Lyons, also wrote a Liber Septimus
Decretalium, inserted in the appendix to the Frankfort (1590) edition of the Corpus Juris Canonici. This work was put on the Index.

Jus Codicis

Pio-Benedictine law

At the

1917 Codex Iuris Canonici
(CIC, Code of Canon Law) was the first instance of a new code completely re-written in a systematic fashion, reduced to a single book or "codex" for ease of use. It took effect on 29 May 1918. It had 2,414 canons.

Johanno-Pauline law

In 1959,

Sacrae Disciplinae Leges on 25 January 1983, taking effect on 27 November 1983.[18] The subjects of the 1983 Codex Iuris Canonici (CIC, Code of Canon Law) are the world's 1.2 billion Catholics of what the Code itself calls the Latin Church
. It has 7 books and 1,752 canons.

Eastern canon law

Distinct from the canonical tradition of the

Eastern Catholic Churches. The earliest Oriental canon law collections were called nomocanons, which were collections of both canon and civil law
.

In the early twentieth century, when Eastern Churches began to come back to full communion with the

Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church in order to preserve the rights and traditions of the Eastern Catholic Churches
.

Since the early twentieth century,

sui juris particular Eastern Catholic Churches, which were each encouraged to issue codes of particular law peculiar to each church, so that all of the Catholic Church's canon law would be codified
.

Timeline

Jus antiquum

Jus novum

Jus novissimum

  • 1566 –
    Antonio Agustín
    of Spain. Pope Pius V did not live to see this project to completion.
  • 1582 – Gregory XIII orders republication of the entire Corpus Iuris Canonici as compiled at the time[21] (enforced until 1917)

Jus codicis

See also

References

  1. ^ Edward N. Peters, CanonLaw.info, accessed Jul-1-2013
  2. ^ a b c Manual of Canon Law, p. 13, #8
  3. ^ Paul Fournier and Gabriel Le Bras, Histoire des Collections Canoniques en Occident depuis les Fausses Décrétales jusqu’au Décret de Gratien, 2 vols. (Paris, 1931), vol I, pp. 16–17
  4. ^ On the controversial date of the Dionysian collections, see E. Wirbelauer, ed., Zwei Päpste in Rom: der Konflikt zwischen Laurentius und Symmachus (498–514), Studien und Texte, Quellen und Forschungen zur antiken Welt 16 (Munich, 1993), p. 121.
  5. ^ David N. Dumville, "Ireland, Brittany and England: Transmission and Use of the Collectio canonum Hibernensis", in Catherine Laurent and Helen Davis (eds.), Irlande et Bretagne : vingt siècles d'histoire, Actes du colloque de Rennes, 29–31 mars 1993 (Rennes, 1994), pp. 84–85.
  6. ^ M. Elliot, Canon Law Collections in England ca 600–1066: The Manuscript Evidence, unpubl. PhD dissertation (University of Toronto, 2013).
  7. ^ Fournier and Le Bras, Histoire des Collections Canoniques en Occident, vol I, pp. 51–62.
  8. ^ a b c Law and Revolution, p. 116
  9. ^ Law and Revolution, p. 240
  10. ^ NYTimes.com, Neighbors and Wives book review of Nov-13-1988, accessed 27 June 2013
  11. ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia: Johannes Gratian". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  12. ^ a b Europe in the High Middle Ages, pp. 127–128
  13. ^ Europe in the High Middle Ages, p. 116
  14. ^ Kenneth J. Pennington, CL701, CUA School of Canon Law, "History of Canon Law, Day 1", around 0:25:30, accessed 8-15-2014
  15. ^ Harold J. Berman, "Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition", p. 254
  16. ^ a b John XXIII, allocution Questa festiva (25 Jan. 1959), AAS 51 (1959) pp. 68–69
  17. ^ a b CanonLaw.info, "Legislative History of the 1983 Code of Canon Law"; accessed June-7-2013
  18. ^ Pope John Paul II (1983-01-25). "Apostolic Constitution Sacrae Disciplinae Leges". Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Retrieved 2007-04-08.
  19. ^ Berman, Law and Revolution, p. 605
  20. ^ a b c d e f Ken Pennington, Codification 1225 to 1900 Archived 2015-12-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 7 December 2015
  21. ^ Edward N. Peters, "1917 Code of Canon Law" (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2001), p. 6 (Pietro Gasparri's Preface to 1917 CIC)
  22. ^ a b Benedict XV, Ap. Const. Providentissima Mater Ecclesia of 27 May 1917
  23. ^ a b c d Coriden, The Code of Canon Law, p. 948
  24. Sacrae Disciplinae Leges
  25. ^ 1983 Code, canon 6 §1, 1°
  26. ^ John Paul II, Ad Tuendam Fidem, accessed 16 July 2015
  27. ^ Benedict XVI, Omnium in Mentem, accessed 16 July 2015.
  28. ^ Pope Francis reforms Church law in marital nullity trials, Vatican Radio, accessed 8 September 2015
  29. ^ Francis (9 September 2017), Magnum Principium (Motu Proprio), Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, retrieved 11 March 2018
  30. ^ Null (2019-03-26). "Pope Issues Motu Proprio 'Communis Vita' to Limit Priestly Absence from Communities". ZENIT – English. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  31. ^ "Papa Francesco: Motu proprio "Communis vita", il religioso "illegittimamente assente e irreperibile" per un anno è dismesso dall'ordine | AgenSIR". 26 March 2019.
  32. ^ Brockhaus, Hannah. "Pope Francis changes canon law for religious who desert the community". Catholic News Agency. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  33. ^ https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/03/26/pope-amends-canon-law-on-religious-who-abandon-their-community/[bare URL]
  34. ^ "Pope amends canon law on religious who abandon their community". TheCatholicSpirit.com. 2019-03-26. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  35. ^ Pope Francis: New rules for religious life, VaticanNews.va, accessed 26 March 2019.

Bibliography

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainFrancis J. Schaefer (1913). "Influence of the Church on Civil Law". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.