Section III. Ecclesiastical Law

We saw above that the Catholic Church has received from her divine Founder full and independent authority to make laws, binding upon all her children in matters which pertain to religion and the salvation of souls. She has constantly used this power which Jesus Christ gave her. Various collections of Church law were made from an early period in her history, but those which are contained in the Corpus Juris are the most celebrated. The Corpus Juris is usually divided into two volumes. The first contains the Decretum of Gratian, a Benedictine monk, who composed his work about the middle of the twelfth century. It is a private collection, and so the documents of which it is composed have only the authority derived from their origin, unless custom or subsequent approbation has given special canons greater weight. The second volume, on the contrary, contains several official collections, made by the authority of the Holy Decretals of Gregory IX, the Sext, See. These are the and the Clementines. Any papal constitution contained in these collections has authority from the very fact of its insertion in the Corpus Juris, ‘The second volume also contains the Extravagants of John XXII, and the Common Extravagants, both of which are private collections, although inserted in the Corpus Juris.

The Corpus Juris contains the ancient law of the Catholic Church, which has been modified and accommodated to the times by more recent councils and constitutions of the Holy See. The Council of Trent especially made many changes demanded by the altered circumstances of the times, and the Popes have at different times issued a great number of constitutions and laws to meet the constantly changing wants of the Church. These constitutions are usually quoted by giving the Pope’s name and the initial words, together with the date of the document.

Early in the year 1904 Pius X ordered the common law of the Western Church to be codified. The work was finished and promulgated by Benedict XV on Whit Sunday, 1917. This new Codex Juris Canonici came into force on May 19, 1918. It has binding force throughout the Western Church, Besides the common law which binds the whole Church, each country, province, and diocese has its own special laws and customs. The four Councils of Westminster contain the special provincial laws which bind the Catholics of England and Wales.