EDITTO. – Etymologically (from the Latin edicere), it means that which is made known to the public by means of oral communication.
I. IN ROMAN LAW
In Roman law, the ordinances of the magistrates by which certain measures were promulgated or the people were informed of the rules relating to the exercise of a particular magistracy were called e. (edicta or leges edictales).The right to issue e. (ius edicendi) properly belonged to magistrates endowed with imperium, that is, to the consul, the praetor and, in the provinces, the governor; it was also extended to the censors, the curule aediles, the tribunes and the pontifex maximus; later, it belonged especially to the emperor.
Originally, publication took place through an oral proclamation (edictio) made by the magistrate in a public assembly of the people (contio); very soon, from an early period, this was followed by the public posting of the relevant text, written in black letters on special white tablets (proponere in albo).
Of all the e. of the various magistrates, that of the urban praetor, to which the name edictum is given par excellence, has remained famous and highly important in the history of Roman law, as the basis and principal source of the so-called ius honorarium = praetorium. It was issued by the individual magistrate at the beginning of his term of office and was called edictum perpetuum because it remained in force throughout the duration of the magistracy. It consisted of a body of principles relating to procedural law (but which
EDICOLA - E. on the flank of S. Maria in Trastevere (12th century). Rome.
which in reality practically amounted to rules of substantive law), which the praetor would follow in granting procedural actions and exceptions. Whereas in the general or perpetual e. provision was made for the ordinary cases expressly listed in it, with the edicta repentina provision was made for emergency cases (prout rex incifit) not contemplated therein. The central core of the e. perpetuo, which, by then tested through experience, was customarily transmitted intact from praetor to praetor, was called edictum tralaticum or vetus.
The emperor Hadrian, around 130 A.D., making use of the work of the jurist Salvio Giuliano, definitively codified the e., which from then on was called perpetual in the strict sense of the word (edictum perpetuum).
II. IMPERIAL EDICT
The emperor could issue edicts by virtue of the proconsular imperium “which was conferred upon him, and since his was a “greater imperium,” his edicts had force not only in the provinces of which he was proconsul (the so-called imperial provinces, that is, the “non pacatae”), but also in the provinces left under the government of the Senate, and in Italy. Proof that this was so from the beginnings of the imperial age is provided by the celebrated inscription from Cyrene, containing five edicts of Augustus referring to local matters, and thus also valid for the senatorial province of Cyrenaica. In time, naturally, as the character of the Empire as an absolute monarchy became ever more pronounced, the sources of law were no longer “leges, plebis scita, senatus consulta,” but the “constitutiones principis.” The legislative value of every decision of the emperor was theoretically undisputed even in the age of the Severi; in practice, however, even earlier, the norms and instructions of the prince were regarded as possessing legal value and efficacy equivalent, if not identical, to those of laws (cf. Ulpian in Dig., 1, 4: “...Quodcumque imperator per epistulam et subscriptionam statuit vel cognoscens decrevit, vel de plano interlocutus est, vel edicto praecepit legem esse constat”).The forms in which these decisions were issued bore the names “edicta, decreta, rescripta, epistolae, mandata, allocutiones,” among which the “edicta” occupied the first place. The formula was the same as for the edicts of Republican magistrates: “Imperator ille... dicit”; publication took place by posting “in albo,” while copies were sent to the magistrates and officials who were to take cognizance of them and see to their implementation.
Given the extension in space and time of the prince’s powers, imperial edicts, unlike those of Republican magistrates, had continuing validity, without the need for an act of confirmation by the successor; nor did they serve only to implement contingent and provisional administrative measures, but also to introduce general and enduring principles. As examples, one may take the edicts of Augustus to the Cyreneans or, if one wishes a more genuine form (because only the Greek version of the edicts to the Cyreneans survives), the edict of Claudius “de civitate Anaunorum” (cf. Fontes iuris Romani anteiustiniani, ed. S. Riccobono, I, Firenze 1941, pp. 404 and 417).
It is therefore understandable that the relations of the Empire with Christianity were regulated for the most part by edicts. It is not certain that the Greek inscription entitled Αλέξανδρος Καλόκρος, probably found at Nazareth, has any relation to the resurrection of Jesus. That edict of an unnamed emperor threatens violators of tombs with penalties; some scholars proposed that imperial intervention had been provoked by the stir caused by the discovery that Christ’s tomb was empty (abundant literature, with a recent summary study by M. Guarducci, in Rendic. della Pont. Accademia romana d'archeologia, 18 [1941-42], pp. 85-98). Likewise, it is doubtful whether a Letter of Claudius to the Alexandrians refers to the first Christian preaching and the disturbances that followed it; in this letter the emperor warns the Jews of that city not to call other Jews there from Syria or Egypt in order to provoke a common pestilence throughout the world (recent publication with the earlier bibliography: H. Janne, Lettre de Claude aux Alexandries, in Mélauges Cumeau, I, Bruxelles 1936, pp. 271-95).
The great jurist Ulpian had collected the acts of government relating to Christianity, evidently recognizing, also from the standpoint of scholarly interest, the importance of the new kinds of questions that Christian preaching and the imperial reaction had brought forth. The information is supplied by Lactantius (Divin. Institutionum, V, 11), but the collection which, had it been preserved, would have spared so many discussions of the legal basis of the persecutions, is lost. Something, in any case, of these acts of government relating to Christian questions has survived, for the most part, however, not in the precise form of edicts. First in chronological order and importance is the Letter of Pliny to Traiana, and the reply of that emperor, which shows that a clear and straightforward solution had still not been found (v. TAZIANO). There is then the Rescript of Hadrian to Minncio Fundano, proconsul of Asia, following the path marked out by Trajan. All the constitutions ordering the persecutions have been lost; preserved instead is an epistle of the emperor Gallienus to certain bishops of Asia, ordering the restitution of property confiscated during the persecution of Valerian, as well as the report of a Decretum of Aurelian in a dispute between Paul of Samosata and Domnus over possession of the episcopal house of Antioch, together with various other documents (though not the texts of the edicts).
The edict of toleration of Galerius of 311 survives intact, preserved in the Greek text by Eusebius (Hist. ecl., VIII, 17), and in the Latin text by Lactantius (De mort. persecut., 34), with insignificant variations; nor are there valid reasons for doubting its authenticity. From this edict derive letters and acts of Maximinus Daia, who accepted, though reluctantly, the provisions of toleration. The so-called famous Edict of Milan (v. EDITTO DI MILANO) is not preserved in its text; what survives is the epistle that Licinius and Constantine sent to the magistrates to make the provisions of the edict known.
Once the Empire had become Christian, edicts and other acts of government were directed toward consolidating Christianity’s gains, limiting and finally completely prohibiting the profession of pagan cults, regulating disciplinary questions, and intervening in controversies between the Church and heretical sects. A fair number of these constitutions are collected in the Codex Theodosianus and in the Justinianic compilations. For example, in the constitution preserved in Cod. Theod., XVI, 11, 3, 5, Constantine exempts members of the Christian clergy from the extremely burdensome “munera,” that is, from the obligation to perform free and costly public functions, and defines and recognizes the persons to whom the privilege extends. Various acts of Constantine were prompted by the disputes of the Donatists and by the Arian question, and certainly by an imperial act the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea was convened, which was to define what the genuine faith of Christians should be. Worthy of note are the constitutions of Constantius II of the years 340 and 346, by which public manifestations of pagan worship were prohibited (Cod. Theod., XVI, 1, 2 and 4), and those of Gratian, who renewed the prohibitions on public worship, ordered the closure of the temples, confiscated their property, and prohibited bequests in their favor. Julian the Apostate was legislatively very active; in religious policy he acted in a direction entirely contrary to Christianity, but almost nothing of this activity survives in the compilations ordered by Theodosius II and Justinian.
III. IN CANON LAW
In canon law, judicial citations made by public posting and by insertion in the official commentary of the Holy See (citationes edictales or per edictum: cf. canons 1720, 1721 § 3) have received and still retain the designation of edicts; sometimes, in practice, the same term has also been applied to extrajudicial citations, addressed collectively to several interested parties, for the handling of a matter or the resolution of a dispute through administrative proceedings.In ancient times, this name was given to certain legislative acts of the supreme pontiffs concerning the government of their temporal dominion and, in general, to the public proclamations made to the people by popes and bishops concerning events, indults, and decisions affecting the community. Zeccaria da San Mauro