Canon law of the Catholic Church
is the system of religious laws and ecclesiastical legal principles made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Catholic Church to regulate its external organization and government and to order and direct the activities of Catholics toward the mission of the Church.
It is the first modern Western legal system and is the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West, while the unique traditions of Eastern Catholic canon law govern the 23 Eastern Catholic particular churches sui iuris.
Positive ecclesiastical laws, based directly or indirectly upon immutable divine law or natural law, derive formal authority in the case of universal laws from promulgation by the supreme legislator—the supreme pontiff, who possesses the totality of legislative, executive, and judicial power in his person, or by the College of Bishops acting in communion with the pope. In contrast, particular laws derive formal authority from promulgation by a legislator inferior to the supreme legislator, whether an ordinary or a delegated legislator. The actual subject material of the canons is not just doctrinal or moral in nature, but all-encompassing of the human condition.
The canon law of the Catholic Church has all the ordinary elements of a mature legal system: laws, courts, lawyers, judges. The canon law of the Catholic Church is articulated in the legal code for the Latin Church as well as a code for the Eastern Catholic Churches. This canon law has principles of legal interpretation, and coercive penalties. It lacks civilly-binding force in most secular jurisdictions. Those who are versed and skilled in canon law, and professors of canon law, are called canonists. Canon law as a sacred science is called canonistics.
The jurisprudence of canon law is the complex of legal principles and traditions within which canon law operates, while the philosophy, theology, and fundamental theory of Catholic canon law are the areas of philosophical, theological, and legal scholarship dedicated to providing a theoretical basis for canon law as a legal system and as true law.
Definitions
The term "canon law" was only regularly used from the twelfth century onwards. The term ius ecclesiasticum, by contrast, referred to the secular law, whether imperial, royal, or feudal, that dealt with relations between the state and the Catholic Church. The term corpus iuris canonici was used to denote canon law as legal system beginning in the thirteenth century.Other terms sometimes used synonymously with ius canonicum include ius sacrum, ius ecclesiasticum, ius divinum, and ius pontificium, as well as sacri canones.
is the positive law that emanates from the legislative power of the Catholic Church in its effort to govern its members in accordance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Fernando della Rocca used the term "ecclesiastical-positive law" in contradistinction to civil-positive law, in order to differentiate between the human legislators of church and state, all of which issue "positive law" in the normal sense.
Examples of ecclesiastical positive law are fasting during the liturgical season of Lent, and religious workers requiring permission from their superiors to publish a book.
Etymology of "canon"
The word "canon" comes from the Greek kanon, which in its original usage denoted a straight rod, was later used for a measuring stick, and eventually came to mean a rule or norm. In 325, when the first ecumenical council, Nicaea I, was held, kanon started to obtain the restricted juridical denotation of a law promulgated by a synod or ecumenical council, as well as that of an individual bishop.Legal history and codification
The Catholic Church has the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West, much later than Roman law but predating the evolution of modern European civil law traditions. What began with rules said to have been adopted by the Apostles at the Council of Jerusalem in the first century has developed into a highly complex legal system encapsulating not just norms of the New Testament, but some elements of the Hebrew, Roman, Visigothic, Saxon, and Celtic legal traditions. As many as 36 collections of canon law are known to have been brought into existence before 1150.The history of Latin canon law can be divided into four periods: the ius antiquum, the ius novum, the ius novissimum and the Codex Iuris Canonici. In relation to the Code, history can be divided into the ius vetus and the ius novum.
The Eastern Catholic canon law of the Eastern Catholic Churches, which had developed some different disciplines and practices, underwent its own process of codification, resulting in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches promulgated in 1990 by Pope John Paul II.
St. Raymond of Penyafort, a Spanish Dominican priest, is the patron saint of canonists, due to his important contributions to canon law in codifying the Decretales Gregorii IX. Other saintly patrons include St. Ivo of Chartres and the Jesuit St. Robert Bellarmine.
''Ius antiquum''
The period of canonical history known as the ius antiquum extends from the foundation of the Church to the time of Gratian. This period can be further divided into three periods: the time of the apostles to the death of Pope Gelasius I, the end of the 5th century to the spurious collection of the 9th century, and the last up to the time of Gratian.In the Early Church, the first canons were decreed by bishops united in "Ecumenical" councils or "local" councils. Over time, these canons were supplemented with decretals of the Bishops of Rome, which were responses to doubts or problems according to the maxim, "Roma locuta est, causa finita est". A common misconception, the Catholic Encyclopedia links this saying to St Augustine who actually said something quite different: "jam enim de hac causa duo concilia missa sunt ad sedem apostolicam; inde etiam rescripta venerunt; causa finita est" in response to the heretical Pelagianism of the time.
In the first millennium of the Latin Church, the canons of various ecumenical and local councils were supplemented with decretals of the popes; these were gathered together into collections.
''Ius novum''
The period of canonical history known as the Ius novum or middle period covers the time from Gratian to the Council of Trent.The spurious 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 summarize the whole body of canon law, to systematize it in whole or in part. The first truly systematic collection was assembled by the Camaldolese monk Gratian in the 11th century, commonly known as the Decretum Gratiani but originally called The Concordance of Discordant Canons. Before Gratian there was no "jurisprudence of canon law". Gratian is the founder of canonical jurisprudence, which merits him the title "Father of Canon Law". Gratian also had an enormous influence on the history of natural law in his transmission of the ancient doctrines of natural law to Scholasticism.
Canon law greatly increased from 1140 to 1234. After that, it slowed down, except for the laws of local councils, and secular laws supplemented. In 1234 Pope Gregory IX promulgated the first official collection of canons, called the Decretalia Gregorii Noni or Liber Extra. This was followed by the Liber Sextus of Boniface VIII, the Clementines of Clement V, the Extravagantes Joannis XXII and the Extravagantes Communes, all of which followed the same structure as the Liber Extra. All these collections, with the Decretum Gratiani, are together referred to as the Corpus Iuris Canonici. After the completion of the Corpus Iuris Canonici, subsequent papal legislation was published in periodic volumes called Bullaria.
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 of Pope Gregory IX, the Liber Sextus of Boniface VIII and the Clementines, prepared for Clement V but published by 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.
''Ius novissimum''
The third canonical period, known as the ius novissimum, stretches from the Council of Trent to the promulgation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law which took legal effect in 1918. The start of the ius novissimum is not universally agreed upon, however. Edward N. Peters argues that the ius novissimum actually started with the Liber Extra of Gregory IX in 1234.''Ius codicis''
The fourth period of canonical history is that of the present day, initiated by the promulgation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law on 27 May 1917.Benedict XV, in his bull of promulgation, refers to the motu proprio ''Arduum sane, which was issued by Pius X, March 17, 1904, and gave rise to the 1917 Code. In that pronouncement, the Pontiff stated the reasons which prompted him as the supreme Pastor of souls, who has the care of all the churches, to provide for a new codification of ecclesiastic laws, with a view "to put together with order and clearness all the laws of the Church thus far issued, removing all those that would be recognized as abrogated or obsolete, adapting others to the necessities of the times, and enacting new ones in conformity with the present needs."
It is sometimes referred to as the ius codicis or, in comparison with all law before it, the ius novum''. From time to time, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts issues authentic interpretations regarding the code. The pope occasionally amends the text of the codes.