Chapter IV. The Subjects of Law

ALL those are subject to the law and bound to yield it obedience who live under the authority of the legislator. And so, inasmuch as the natural law is derived from the eternal law of God, and is nothing else than the rule of action suited to human nature as such, all who participate in human nature are subject to the law of nature. Infants and madmen who do something forbidden by the law of nature are indeed excused from formal sin for want of knowledge, but anyone who wilfully provokes them to such actions commits sin by their means in so doing.

Human law is intended to be a guide for reasonable human beings, and so the habitual use of reason is required in order to be subject to human law. Imbeciles and children who have not yet attained the use of reason are not subject to positive law. Regularly the Church presumes that at seven years of age children attain the use of reason, and inasmuch as the law provides for what ordinarily happens we may say that at seven years children begin to be obliged to hear Mass and to fulfil the other duties of the Christian life (Can. 12). It is well that they should be accustomed to obey such laws as those of hearing Mass and abstaining even earlier. There are special reasons for deferring the obligation of fasting, and sometimes for deferring for a time that of receiving Holy Communion (Can. 859).

Drunken people remain subject to the Church’s law, for habitually they have the use of reason.

Men become subject to the Church by Christian baptism, and so all baptized persons, and these alone, are subject to the laws of the Church. Heretics and schismatics who are validly baptized are per se subject to the Church’s laws, but a probable opinion teaches that it is not the Church’s intention to bind them by such of her laws as proximately regard the sanctification of individual souls rather than the public good. Such are the laws of keeping certain days holy, of abstaining, of fasting, of hearing Mass on Sundays. Harm rather than good would follow from intending these laws to bind heretics and schismatics.

Particular ecclesiastical laws are made for particular countries, or provinces, or dioceses, by the competent authority, and bind all subjects living within the territories in question. One is subject to local law by having a domicile or quasi-domicile in the territory for which the law is made. To constitute a domicile in ecclesiastical law, two conditions are required. The person domiciled must have taken up his abode in a parish, or quasi-parish, or at least in a diocese, vicariate apostolic, or prefecture apostolic; and this abode must be joined either with the intention of perpetually remaining there, if they are not called away, or with the actual dwelling there for ten years.

A quasi-domicile is acquired by taking up his abode in the place as above, joined with the intention of remaining there for the greater part of a year if not called away, or with the actual dwelling there for the greater part of a year.

A domicile and a quasi-domicile are lost by those who have them leaving their abode with the intention of not returning there; but wives always retain the domicile of their husbands unless they are lawfully separated from them, and minors that of their guardians (Can. 13, 92, 93, 95).

Whoever, then, resides in a place, having therein a domicile or quasi-domicile is subject to the particular laws of that place. Contracts, too, are governed by the law of the place where they are made, and whoever commits a crime is amenable to the law of the country where it is committed.

While outside the limits of the territory in which one is domiciled, there is no obligation to obey the particular laws of that territory, for the law is territorial and does not bind beyond the limits of the territory for which it was made.

A stranger (peregrinus), or one who has a domicile in another place, but at present is staying elsewhere, is not bound by the particular laws of the place where he is staying; for he is not subject to their authority by having either a domicile or a quasi-domicile in the place, And so, if an English Catholic happened to be in Dublin on the feast of St Patrick, which is kept there as a day of obligation, he would not be bound to hear Mass; nor would a Dublin man who happened to be staying on that day in England. However, a stranger staying in a place where the common law of the Church is observed is bound to act according to its provisions, though there may be a dispensation from its observance in the place where he has his domicile. And so an English Catholic staying in Rome should abstain from flesh meat on Saturday as well as on Friday in Ember week. Moreover, any contracts that he may enter into or crimes that he may commit subject him to the laws of the country where he is staying in those respects (Can. 14).

Homeless people (vagi) are bound by the general and particular laws which are in force in the place where they are staying (Can. 14, sec. 2).

Regulars and their monasteries are exempt from episcopal authority, and so in general are not subject to the laws made by the Bishops for their dioceses. There are, however, many exceptions to this general rule, for in spite of their exemption regulars have in special cases been subjected by the Holy See to the ordinary or else delegated authority of diocesan Bishops. The special cases are treated of by canonists (Can. 615).