CORPUS IURIS CANONICI
The term *corpus* denotes a collection of documents; *corpus iuris* is a compilation of legal documents, especially when arranged in systematic order. Sometimes the term is used to designate the authentic and complete collection of all laws by which a society is governed; thus when Benedict XIV sent the first volume of his *Bullarium* to the doctors and students of Bologna, in the constitution prefixed thereto (*Iam fere sextus*), he explained that this volume certainly lies outside the *C. i. c.* if this term is given its most usual meaning, which we shall presently explain, but is included within it if the appellation *corporis iuris canonici* is understood to mean "whatever emanates from Apostolic authority."
**Summary:**
I. General Notions
II. Gratian’s *Decretum*
III. Decretals of Gregory IX
IV. The *Liber sextus*
V. The *Clementines*
VI. The *Extravagantes*
VII. Editions.
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### I. General Notions
For several centuries, however, the term *C. i. c.* has denoted a collection of well-defined sources; and the term and its usage clearly reflect the influence of the analogous designation that gained universal currency from the 12th century onward for the Justinianic codification. It is unnecessary here to consider those sources that in earlier periods were occasionally designated—though never with any general character—by this or similar terms (*Corpus decretorum*). It suffices to recall that at least from the 16th century (though the Council of Basel, in its 23rd session, c. 6, alludes to "reservations enclosed in the *corpus iuris*," intending to refer to provisions of the *Liber sextus*), the term comprises three unofficial collections and three official compilations: namely, Gratian’s *Decretum*, the *Extravagantes* of John XXII, and the *Extravagantes communes*; the Decretals of Gregory IX, the *Liber sextus decretalium* of Boniface VIII, and the *Clementines* (the motu proprio *Arduum sane munus* of March 19, 1904 (*Acta Sanctae Sedis*, 36 [1904], pp. 549–51), which decreed the codification of canon law, indeed states that the present "corpus, which is called *iuris canonici*, is chiefly composed" of the Decretals of Gregory IX, the *Sextus*, the *Clementines*, together with Gratian’s *Decretum*).
The work was never promulgated as a single, unified whole: the *C. i. c.* is a unity by virtue of tradition and doctrine; it cannot, however, be regarded for any practical purpose as a code deriving its unity from legislative will, whereby all its parts would possess equal force. Gregory XIII, with the constitution *Cum pro munere* of July 1, 1580, approved the work carried out by a commission of cardinals and scholars (*correctores romani*) appointed by Pius V in 1566 for the purpose of revising, correcting, and purging from spurious additions the *Decretum* of Gratian (a revision that was especially necessary), the Decretals of Gregory IX, the *Sextus*, the *Clementines*, and the *Extravagantes*; and thus approved the printed edition issued by the *Officina Populi Romani*, to be adopted as the standard, granting to this printing house for ten years the privilege of reprinting the work. With the other constitution, *Emendationem decretorum* of June 2, 1582, the Pope merely approved the emendation of Gratian’s *Decretum*, based on the oldest manuscripts and the authors whom Gratian had consulted. Notable in the constitution *Cum pro munere* are the expressions: "... so that this corpus of canon law may be printed faithfully and without corruption according to the exemplar here printed in Rome... desiring that this canon law, thus purged, may reach all Christians everywhere unharmed... that no one whatsoever may be permitted to add anything to the books of this canon law..."; that is, the constitution uses the three expressions *C. i. c.*, *Ius canonicum*, and *Libri iuris canonici* interchangeably. As for the significance of *Cum pro munere*, it clearly concerns the approval of an edition, which may well be called the official edition, but not the promulgation of a body of laws. Indeed, it was never doubted that the norms contained in the various parts of the *C. i. c.* did not all possess equal efficacy, but that the older ones could be abrogated by the more recent, and general provisions by special ones, according to the usual principles of interpretation and harmonization of diverse laws.
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### II. Gratian’s *Decretum*
The oldest part of the *C. i. c.* is constituted by the so-called *Decretum Gratiani*, the work of the monk John Gratian, a Camaldolese, who was born, it seems, at Carraria near Ficulle (according to others at Chiusi), and taught in a convent school of the monastery of SS. Felix and Nabore in Bologna. Almost nothing is known of him, unless one accepts legendary data. The work was probably completed in 1140. The title *Decretum*, which is likely derived from that of the Chartres (v.), appears in the oldest manuscripts; but in other ancient codices it is instead entitled *Concordia discordantium canonum*, a title that better reflects the content of the compilation and the aims the author set for himself.
Through numerous collections of canons from the 11th and 12th centuries (to a much lesser extent through direct research on the sources), he gathered an immense body of material, consisting of pseudo-apostolic canons, canons of Eastern, African, Spanish, French, German, and Italian councils held between the 4th and 12th centuries, letters of popes (many spurious) from Anacletus to Innocent II, passages from the Fathers of the Church and ecclesiastical writers (widely used are Ambrose, Jerome, and especially Augustine), fragments from the *Corpus iuris civilis*, the *Codex Theodosianus*, the *Lex Romana Visigothorum*, and the Frankish capitularies.
With this material Gratian composed his work, which consists of three parts. The first, divided into 101 distinctions, themselves subdivided into canons (though this division is later than Gratian), deals with law in general, Church law in particular and its sources, clerics and their obligations, the conferral of the various grades of ecclesiastical hierarchy and the requirements for them. In the second, divided into 36 causes, subdivided into quaestiones which are further subdivided into canons, the author treats judicial and penal law, various questions of patrimonial law, the relations between secular and regular clergy, and matrimonial law. The third (divided into five distinctions, subdivided into canons—here too the division is later than Gratian) deals with the consecration of churches, the Eucharist, Baptism, various questions of liturgy, and some points of theology. Following the model of Alger of Liège’s *De misericordia et iustitia* and Peter Abelard’s *Sic et non*, Gratian strives to connect the texts together and to set out the conclusions that emerge from them. Often the author explains how the contradictions of the texts are only apparent or how they must be overcome: *ratione significationis* (by appealing to the spirit of the norm), *ratione temporis* (the more recent norm prevails), *ratione loci* (the local character of a norm), *ratione dispensationis* (one canon constitutes the general rule and the other a dispensation from observing it). More precisely: in the first part, at the beginning of each distinction, Gratian summarizes the general principles that will be developed in it and sometimes seeks to link the distinction to the one preceding it; in the second part each cause begins with the exposition of an imaginary practical case, which Gratian follows with the enunciation of the various questions that must be resolved in order to arrive at a solution to the case; in both parts (the third is pure exposition of texts) brief commentary often follows individual texts, frequently with the aim of resolving apparent contradictions with other texts; all these passages constitute the so-called *Dicta Gratiani*. Each canon also has a brief title summarizing its content. Certain passages, known as *Paleae*, which are later than the original edition and attributed to the earliest commentator, Paucapalea, are incorporated into the *Decretum*. The work enjoyed enormous diffusion and was truly a fundamental work for the development of canon law (in the heaven of the sun, Thomas Aquinas shows Dante the light of Gratian [Par., X, 103–105]); however, as has been noted, it never received legislative sanction.
The usual way of citing the *Decretum* is: for the first part, the numbers of the canon and the distinction (e.g., 1, D. X); for the second, the canon, the cause, and the quaestio (e.g., c. I, C. XII, q. 1); for the third (which, because of its primary subject matter, is cited under the title *de consecratione*), citation is made as for the first, adding after the number of the distinction the abbreviation *de cons.* (e.g., c. I, D. I de cons.).
III. “DECRETALES” OF GREGORY IX. — In 1230 Gregory IX entrusted to his chaplain and penitentiary, the Dominican Raymond of Peñafort (later raised to the altars), the task of compiling a new collection of decretals. The bull of promulgation, *Rex pacificus* of 5 September 1234, by which the new collection was sent to the Universities of Bologna and Paris, sets out the practical aims of the work in these terms: “diversas constitutiones et decretales epistolas praedecessorum nostrorum, in diversa dispersas volumina, quarum aliae propter nimiam similitudinem, et quaedam propter contrarietatem, nonnullae etiam propter sui prolixitatem, confusionem inducere videbantur, aliquae vero vagabantur extra volumina supradicta, quae tanquam incertae frequenter in iudiciis vacillabant, ad communem, et maxime studentium, utilitatem... illas in unum volumen resecatas superfluis providimus redigendas, adiicientes constitutiones nostras et decretales epistolas, per quas nonnulla, quae in prioribus erant, dubia, declarantur.”
The name immediately adopted for the collection was *Decretales Gregorii IX*, although the alternative *Liber extra* (i.e., of the decretals straying outside Gratian’s *Decretum*) or *Liber extra* was also widely used. The material consists of papal decretals (for the most part from the period 1145–1234), a small number of conciliar canons, passages from Scripture, the Fathers, and ecclesiastical writers, and secular laws. The compiler, however, drew on the original sources only for the most recent decretals; for the others he used five compilations later than Gratian’s *Decretum*, the so-called *Quinque compilationes antiquae*. The material is arranged, according to the system of Bernard of Pavia, into five books (whose approximate contents are indicated by the mnemonic verse *Index iudicum clerus communis crimen*), subdivided into titles with an indication of the subject matter (e.g., *De in integrum restitutione*) and into chapters (each having an *inscriptio*, i.e., an indication of the source of the chapter, which however is not infrequently erroneous, and a *summarium*, a concise formulation of the legal rule enunciated by the passage that constitutes the chapter). In accordance with its practical purpose, the compiler truncated the decretals, suppressing parts that seemed to him superfluous or contained case law rather than general principles (suppression is usually indicated by *et infra*), sometimes interpolated them, and often distributed fragments of the same decretal into various titles in accordance with the subject matter treated in the different passages.
The *Rex pacificus* laid down that only the new collection was to be used in courts and schools; it is disputed whether this amounted to abrogation of the juridical force of provisions not included in the collection.
The usual way of citing passages from it is: the chapter, the work (indicated by an X, from *Extra*), the subject of the title, and the number of the book and title: e.g., c. 2, X, de consuet., I, 4.
IV. THE “LIBER SEXTUS.” — Boniface VIII, noting the uncertainty surrounding papal legislation after 1234, commissioned William Mandagot, archbishop of Embrun, Berengar Fredoli, bishop of Béziers, and Riccardo Petroni of Siena, vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, to prepare a new collection. This was promulgated by the bull *Sacracantae Romanae Ecclesiae* of 3 March 1298, with transmission to the University of Bologna and then to others. The bull laid down that the collection, to be added to the five books of Gregory IX’s *Decretales*, would be called the *Liber sextus*; and it warned that decretals later than Gregory’s work which were not included in the new compilation or expressly preserved by provisions of it were to be considered abrogated.
The *Liber sextus* contains canons from the First and Second Councils of Lyon (1245 and 1274) and papal decretals from the period 1239–98; the final chapter consists of 88 *Regulae Iuris* by Dino da Mugello.
Here too the texts were adjusted in accordance with the practical aims of the collection. It is divided, following the same system as Gregory IX’s *Decretales*, into five books, subdivided into titles and chapters. The method of citation is likewise the same as that indicated for Gregory IX’s *Decretales*, substituting for the indication of the collection the mark VI° (e.g., c. 1, in VI°, de elect., I, 6).
V. The *Clementines*
Pope JOHN XXII, with the constitution *Quoniam nulla iuris* of 25 Oct. 1317, published by sending to the universities the collection of decretals issued by his predecessor CLEMENT V, which represent the reforming work of the Council of Vienne of 1311 (*Clementinae*; but the collection was initially designated as *Liber septimus*; the *Quoniam nulla* does not indicate any name for the collection).According to the constitution, this is simply the promulgation of a collection already prepared, a promulgation which death prevented CLEMENT V from carrying out; it seems instead that JOHN XXII revised the decretals which his predecessor had already published at the Council of Monteaux near Carpentras on 21 March 1314.
The arrangement follows the usual systematic division into 5 books, subdivided into titles and chapters; the mode of citation is the customary one: c. 1, in Clem., de rescriptis, I, 2.
VI. The *Extravagantes*
In manuscripts and early printed editions, various decretals later than the *Sextus* are found added to the collections mentioned here, sometimes published as an appendix to this; more often appended to the *Clementines*. According to the editions, the decretals included and their arrangement vary.In the edition prepared in 1500 by the Parisian booksellers Ulrich Gering and Berthold Rembolt, the licentiate in law JOHANNES CHAPPUIS, entrusted with overseeing this edition, added to the three official collections two more. One of these consists of 20 decretals of JOHN XXII (which ZENZELINUS DE CASSANIS [Jenselin de Cassagnes] had already collected and glossed as a whole in 1325), and bears the title *Extravagantes Joannis XXII*; the decretals are arranged in 14 titles subdivided into chapters. The other collection includes the decretals usually printed with the official collections and in addition 40 new ones; it is entitled *Extravagantes communes*; the decretals are divided into the 5 books of the traditional arrangement, except that the fourth book is empty; the 4 books are subdivided into titles and chapters; the decretals belong to the period 1281–1478.
These two collections of *Extravagantes* have passed into all subsequent editions and thus entered into the traditional formation of the *Corpus Iuris Canonici*, even though they never received official sanction. Mode of citation for the two collections: c. 2, Extrav. Joann. XXII, de concess. praeb., IV; c. un., Extrav. comm., de celeb. missarum, III, 11.
VII. Editions
The work of the Roman correctors, notable especially in relation to GRATIAN’s *Decretum*, was not perfect, owing to the rather scanty knowledge at that time of the sources which GRATIAN had used. A valuable contribution to the reconstruction of the *Decretum* was instead made by the Spaniard ANTONIO AUGUSTIN (AUGUSTINUS) with his *De emendatione Gratiani libri duo*, published in 1587.Still in the second half of the 16th century, the two brothers PIERRE and FRANÇOIS PITHOU prepared a critical edition based on various manuscripts of the entire *Corpus Iuris Canonici*, though this appeared only in 1685–87. An edition, also of the entire *Corpus Iuris Canonici*, far more accurate, was that edited by JUSTUS HENNING BÖHMER, which appeared in 1747; to mention only those which mark a stage in the scholarly elaboration of these texts, there followed the edition of EMIL LUDWIG RICHTER in 1835 and finally that of EMIL FRIEDBERG, published by Tauchnitz in Leipzig in 1879–
81. In the *Decretum*, FRIEDBERG restored the genuine text of GRATIAN (accepting only the arrangement introduced and the *Paleae*), noting the alterations accepted or introduced by the Roman correctors; in the *Decretales* of GREGORY IX he adopted the text of the 1580 edition (indicating in the notes the points where it differs from the original), but published entire the decretals which RAYMOND OF PEÑAFORT, in view of his practical purpose, had mutilated, printing in italics the part that had been suppressed; for the other collections he adopted the text of 1580, indicating in the notes the points where it diverges from the original text
See pl. XXX.VIII.