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corned, taught and glossed by the decretiats at Bo-
logna and later in the other schools and universities,
it was for a long time the text-book of canon law.
However his plan was defective and confusing, and,
after the day of the glosses and the strictly literal com-
mentaries, it was abandoned in favour of the method
adopted by Bernard of Pa via in his *' Breviarium" and
by St. Raymund of Pennafort in the official collection
of the "Decretals" of Gr^ory IX, promulgated in
1234 (see Corpus Juris Canonici). These collec-
tions, which did not include the texts utilized by Gra-
tian, grouped the materials into five books, each di-
vided mto "titles", and under each title the decretals
or fragments of decretals were grouped in chronologi-
cal onier. The five books, the subject matter of
which is recalled by the well-known verse: "judex,
judicium, clerus, connubia, crimen" (i.e. judge, judg-
ment, clergy, marriages, crime), did not display a very
logical plan; not to speak of certain titles tnat were
more or less out of place. They treated successively
of the depositaries of authority, procedure, the clergy
and the things pertaining to them, marriage, crimes
and penalties. In spite of its. defects, the system had
at least the merit of being official; not only was it
adopted in the latter collections, but it served as the
basis for almost all canonical works up to the sixteenth
century, and even to our day, ccpecially in the univer-
sities, each of which had a faculty of canon law.
However the method of studying and teaching gradually developed: if the early decretalists made use of the elementary plan of the gloss and literal com- mentary, their successors in composing their treatises were more independent of the text; they commented on the titles, not on the chapters or the words; often they followed the titles or chapters only nomi- nally and artificially. In the sixteenth century they tried to apply, not to the official collections, out in their lectures on canon law the method and division of the "Institutes" of Justinian: persons, things, ac- tions or procedure, crimes, and penalties (Institutes, I, ii, 12). This plan, popularized by the " Institutiones juris canonici of Lancellotti (1563), has been fol- lowed since by most of the canonist authors of " Insti- tutiones" or manuals, though there has been consid- erable divergency in the sub-divisions; most of the more extensive works, however, preserved the order of the "Decretals". This order will also be followed in the redaction of the forthconain^ code. In recent times many text-books, especially m Germany, have adopted onginal plans. In the sixteenth century too. the study of canon law was developed and improved like that of other sciences, by the critical spirit of the age: doubtful texts were rejected and the raison aHre and tendency or intention of later laws traced back to the customs of former days. Canon law was more studied and better understood; writings multi- plied, some of an historical nature, others practical, according to the inclination of the authors. In the universities and seminaries, it became a special study, though as might be expected, not always held in equal esteem. It may be noted too that the study of civil law is now frequently separated from that of canon law, a result of the changes that have come over soci- ety. On the other hand, in too many seminaries the teaching of ecclesiastical law is not sufficiently distin- guished from that of moral theology. The publication of the new general code of canon law will certainly bring about a more normal state of affaire.
The first object of the science of canon law is to fix the laws that are in force. This is not difficult when one has exact and recent texts, drawn up as abstract laws, e. g. most of the texts since the Council of Trent, and as will be the case for all canon law when the new code is published. But it was not so in the Middle Ages; it was the canonists who, to a large extent, formulated the law by extracting it from the accumu- lated mass of texts or by generalizing from the indi-
vidual deoisioDs in the early collections of decretals.
When the law in force is known it must be explained,
and this second object of the science of canon law is
still unchanged. It consists in showing^ the true sense,
the reason, the extension and application of each law
and each institution. This necessitates a careful and
exact application of the triple method of exposition,
historical, philosophical, and practical: the first ex-
plains the law in accordance with its source and the
evolution of customs; the second explains its princi-
ple; the last shows how it is to be applied at present.
This practical application is the object of Jurispru-
dence, which collects, co-ordinates and utiuzes, for
more or less analo^us cases, the decisions of the com-
petent tribunal. From this we may learn tJie position
of canon law in the hierarchy of sciences. It is a judi-
cial science, differing from the science of Roman law
and of civil law inasmuch as it treats of the laws of an-
other society; but as this society is of the spiritual
order and in a certain sense supematiural, canon law
belongs also to the sacred sciences. In this category
it comes after theology, which studies and explains
in accordance with revelation, the truths to be be-
lieved: it is supported by theology, but in its turn it
formulates the practical rules toward which theology
tends, and so it has been called " theologia practica ,
"theologia rectrix". In as far as it is practical the
science of canon law is closely related to moral theol-
o^; however, it differs from the latter which is not
directly concerned with the acts prescribed or for-
bidden by the external law, but only with the recti-
tude of human acts in the light of the last end of man,
whereas, canon law treats of the external laws relating
to the good order of society rather than the workings
of the individual conscience. Juridical, historicfU,
and above all theological sciences are most useful for
the comprehensive study of canon law.
III. SotJRCEs OF Canon Law. — ^Thds expression has a twofold meaning; it may refer to the sources from which the laws come and which give the latter their judicial force {fonles juris eaaendi); or it may refer to the sources where canon law is to be found (fontes juris cogno8cendi)y i. e. the laws themselves such as they occur in the texts and various codes. These sources are also called the material and the formal sources of canon law. We shall consider first the sources under the former aspect.
The ultimate source of canon law is God, Whose will is manifested either by the very nature of thinp (natural Divine law^), or by Revelation (positive Di- vine law). Both are contained in the Scnptures and in Tradition. Positive Divine law cannot contradict natural law; it rather confirms it and renders it more definite. The Church accepts and considers both as sovereign binding laws whicn it can interpret but can- not modify; however, it does not discover natural law by philosophic speculation; it receives it, with posi- tive Divine law, from God through His inspired Books, though this does not imply a confusion of the two kinds of Divine law. Of the Old Law the Church has preserved in addition to the Decalogue some pre- cepts closely allied to natural law, e. g. certain matri- monial impediments; as to the other laws given by God to His chosen people, it considers them to have been ritual and declares them abrogated by Jesus Christ. Or rather, Jesus Christ, the Lawriver of the spiritual society founded by Him (Con. Trid.. Sess. Vl, "De justif. , c^. xxi), nas replaced them by the fundamental laws which He gave His Church. This Christian Divine law, if we may so call it, is foimd in the Gospels, in the Apostolic writings, in the living Tradition, which transmits laws as well as dogmas. On this positive Divine law depend the effiential principles of the Church's constitution, the primacy, the episcopacy, the essential elements of Divine wor- ship and the SjEMjraments, the indissolubility of mar- riage, etc.
