§ 2. On the Author of Ecclesiastical Law

— Hierarchy means the same as sacred principate or ecclesiastical power. But subjectively it designates the order of persons who participate in that power in various degree. A twofold hierarchy is distinguished, according to the twofold power which belongs to the Church: the power of order and the power of jurisdiction.

The hierarchy of order consists of bishops, priests, and ministers.

The hierarchy of jurisdiction strictly embraces only those persons who possess ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the external forum, and possess it in a certain perfect grade, i.e., one which comprehends legislative, judicial, and coercive power. Less strictly it is constituted by all persons who participate in some jurisdiction of the external forum.

Each hierarchy is of divine origin; but as to the persons in whom it exists, the hierarchy, at least of jurisdiction, is participated by some by divine right, by others by human right, and this either by ordinary right or by delegated right. Finally, one is in a college, another in an individual person.

By divine right jurisdiction is possessed by the Roman Pontiff, by bishops (in general, insofar as Christ wills that in the Church there be a grade of episcopal jurisdiction), and by a general council with the Pope. The other jurisdictions are of human right.

These grades, moreover, must be indicated.

— I. The Supreme Pontiff, to whom the fullness of power belongs, with jurisdiction also immediate over all the baptized.

To exercise his universal jurisdiction, he uses the Sacred Congregations, Tribunals, and Offices of the Roman Curia; to prove and exercise his immediate jurisdiction, he sends Legates. These, in extraordinary circumstances, are Legates a latere; but in ordinary circumstances, Nuncios or Internuncios, if at the same time they represent the Apostolic See before the civil government; Apostolic Delegates, if merely in the territory assigned to them they must observe the state of the churches and report on it to the Roman Pontiff (c. 267); to fulfill his office of spreading the Gospel he uses Apostolic Vicars, Apostolic Prefects, or Superiors of missions in a prefecture not yet erected.

Moreover, in regions separated from a diocese, he constitutes Abbots nullius or Prelates nullius (understand: of a diocese). And in the dioceses themselves he also communicates jurisdiction to Prelates of clerical religions, which at the same time, by a general reason prudently tempered, he has made exempt from episcopal jurisdiction.

The subject of the same universal power, inadequately distinct from the former, is the Ecumenical Council, which the Supreme Pontiff alone convokes, directs, and closes.

— II. Residential bishops with perfect ordinary power govern a diocese under the authority of the Roman Pontiff. He, saving special concessions, freely names the same. Before they begin to exercise the office of ordinary and immediate pastor, they must take possession of the diocese; this requires that, by themselves or by a procurator, they show the apostolic letters to the chapter of the cathedral church, or, if this is lacking, to the episcopal council (c. 334).

Besides residential bishops, there are titular bishops, to whom an ancient see is assigned as a title, which now belongs to places of the missions. Those places are administered through Vicars or Prefects, so that titular bishops enjoy no power in the church from which they borrow the name.

In the diocesan curia there occurs the Vicar General (in large dioceses two or more are constituted), named by the bishop, who participates in the ordinary power of the bishop. He is also called the Ordinary of the place ¹, and, except for affairs which require a special mandate or which the bishop has reserved to himself, he can do those things which pertain to the ordinary power of the bishop, and also, for the most part, those things which are conceded to the bishop by faculties received from the Holy See.

The bishop must also name a chancellor, who takes care of the diocesan archive, and by that very fact is a notary (c. 372); and an Official with ordinary power of judging (c. 1573).

In administering the diocese he is assisted by the chapter of the cathedral church, whose counsel at times, at other times whose consent itself, he must seek. That chapter is composed of canons.

Diocesan consultors in dioceses where a chapter is lacking supply the place of this chapter for the governance of the diocese (c. 427).

Dioceses have customarily been divided into various districts or deaneries, over which a Vicar Forane or Dean is placed. He must hold conferences of the clergy and, in the manner prescribed to him by the bishop, watch over the discipline of his district.

But in the spiritual care of his diocese, the bishop obtains as cooperators pastors, to whom a distinct part of the diocesan community is entrusted to be cared for. That part for the most part and of itself is distinguished by territory; there are, however, personal parishes, which are constituted for persons of a certain origin, of a certain rite, indeed of a certain family. Assistant vicars, or cooperators, are often present to pastors.

The diocesan synod, which the bishop must celebrate at least every ten years (c. 356), and by which he gathers his clergy, is not properly a council, since the bishop alone there establishes or promulgates his statutes.

When the episcopal see is vacant, the ordinary authority of the bishop passes into the cathedral chapter, or, where there is no cathedral chapter, into the assembly of diocesan consultors (c. 427). Within eight days the chapter, or that assembly, must constitute one capitular Vicar, and transfer all its jurisdiction into him.

¹ Thus c. 198 expressly has it. Sometimes, however, the context shows that only he who is the head of a diocese or region is designated by this name.

— III. Several bishops make up an ecclesiastical Province, over which a Metropolitan or Archbishop presides, with power limited to the cases contained in law. He is the judge of appeal, and, in defined cases, supplies for negligent bishops. Provincial bishops are called suffragans of the Metropolitan.

The Metropolitan himself once and for all must, with the Apostolic See approving, designate the local Ordinary to whom appeal is made from causes which in the first instance were treated before the Metropolitan (c. 1591).

A provincial Council, of which the most important part is the bishops of the province, although others also must be called, is to be celebrated at least every twentieth year; and bishops sui iuris, or those who immediately depend on the Supreme Pontiff, must choose the metropolitan whose provincial council they themselves attend ¹.

In the Western Church, Patriarchs and Primates bear merely an honorific title. Not so in the East, where Patriarchs, under the Supreme Pontiff, are the supreme pastors of some rite.

¹ The same must be done by an archbishop who is not a metropolitan, or who has no one as suffragan, as for example the archbishop of Catania.

— IV. The Ordinaries of several ecclesiastical provinces can come together in a plenary Council, after permission has nevertheless been sought from the Roman Pontiff, who designates his Legate to convoke the council and preside over it (c. 282).

— 1. For the universal Church, the Roman Pontiff, whether alone or in an Ecumenical Council. He is bound by no special form. Sometimes he makes laws through the Roman Congregations themselves, concerning which below, in the appendix on the Roman Curia.

2. Within the ambit of a general or particular mandate, Legates of the Supreme Pontiff and the Sacred Roman Congregations, for example, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in the territory subject to it. We shall treat of these Congregations in the appendix on the Roman Curia.

3. For the territory of each, the plenary Council and the provincial Council. But the decrees of either Council, before they are promulgated, must have been reviewed by the Sacred Congregation of the Council.

4. For their diocese or quasi-diocese, bishops and prelates of similar jurisdiction: Prelates nullius, Apostolic Vicars and Prefects.

5. For the diocese also, when the See is vacant, the Chapter of the cathedral church and the capitular Vicar: insofar as there is need, and with nothing innovated.

6. For the religion subject to them, the general chapters of regular Orders and of exempt clerical religions. Congregations or general chapters of lay or non-exempt religions are without jurisdiction. They establish ordinances, which for the most part are not perpetual, but are in force until the next chapter, by the force of a certain domestic or dominative power, which is measured according to vows or promises made (Cf. Wernz, t. 1, n. 94).

What particular chapters or the supreme Prelate alone can do must be gathered from the various Constitutions. In the Society of Jesus, the Superior General can establish ordinances which, although they are not of the same grade as the decrees of general Congregations, nevertheless have the force of law to some extent; while in the same Society and in many religions, provincial congregations are destitute of all jurisdiction.

— You ask what laws can be made by bishops?

Bishops by their laws can establish nothing against common law or against the decrees of a plenary or provincial council. Wherefore, unless the superior law itself expressly grants this, they can neither prohibit what law expressly permits, nor permit what it prohibits, nor order matters which are reserved to the Holy See. Therefore this power of bishops has this scope, that they determine more particularly the more universal laws of the Church and apply them to the diocese. Cf. Wernz, II, n. 756.

Those laws can be made both within and outside a synod. The things which are ordered in synod are judged to be true laws; but those which are promulgated outside synod, according to a sufficiently approved opinion, are rather regarded as precepts, unless they affect all diocesan persons, or unless the bishop has clearly signified the mind of establishing a law ¹, for example, for the Clergy. Cf. Lehmk. I, 213.

Observe that synodal statutes are subject to no Roman review.

¹ This will now happen more easily, since synods are to be assembled much more rarely than before the Code. By the Council of Trent annual meetings were established.