Distinction III

GRATIAN. Part I. All these species are parts of secular laws. But since an enactment is either civil or ecclesiastical, and the civil enactment is called forensic or civil law, let us see by what name an ecclesiastical enactment is called. §1. An ecclesiastical enactment is designated by the name “canon.” Isidore explains what a canon is in Book VI of the Etymologies [c. 16], saying:

Canon in Greek is called regula in Latin.

[Isidore, same chapter 16.] A rule is so called because it directs rightly and never draws elsewhere. Others have said that a rule is so called either because it governs, or because it provides a norm of right living, or because it corrects what is distorted and depraved.

Part II. GRATIAN. Furthermore, some canons are decrees of pontiffs, while others are statutes of councils. Of councils, some are universal and others provincial. Of provincial councils, some are celebrated by the authority of the Roman Pontiff, namely with a legate of the holy Roman Church present; others, however, by the authority of the patriarchs, primates, or metropolitans of the same province. These things are to be understood concerning general rules. §1. There are also certain private laws, both ecclesiastical and secular, which are called privileges. Concerning these, Isidore says in Book V of the Etymologies [c. 18]:

Privileges are laws concerning private persons, as though private laws. For a privilege is so called because it is enacted concerning a private person.

Part III. GRATIAN. The function of secular or ecclesiastical laws is to command what it is necessary to do, to prohibit what it is evil to do, and to permit either lawful things, such as seeking a reward, or certain unlawful things, such as giving a bill of repudiation, lest worse things be done. Hence Isidore writes in the same book [c. 19], saying:

Every law either permits something, as: “Let a brave man seek a reward”; or forbids, as: “Let it be lawful for no one to seek marriage with consecrated virgins”; or punishes, as: “Let him who has committed a killing be punished capitally”—for human life is governed by its reward or punishment; or commands, as: “Love the Lord your God.”