PRAMMATICA SANZIONE. - I. Pragmatica sanctio is the name applied in the late Roman Empire to a type of imperial constitution whose nature is controversial and cannot be reduced to a single concept. At times the p. s. contains provisions of a general character, at other times particular regulations; it is commonly held to be something intermediate between the lex generalis and the rescriptum; more recently, it has been likened to an emergency ordinance.
In certain cases it serves to transmit legislative documents, as did the p. s. which, according to the provisions of Theodosius II, was to accompany the constitutions issued by the emperor of one of the partes imperii so that the constitutions themselves would have force in the territory subject to the authority of his colleague. A celebrated p. s. is the one called pro petitione Vigilii of 14 sg. 554, by which Justinian sent a group of his constitutions to the West, at the request, precisely, of Pope Vigilius, and confirmed the force in Italy of the parts of his codification that had previously been promulgated.
(fot. Santuini)
(fot. Alinari)
II. P. S. OF BOURGES. - A constitution promulgated by Carlo VII, king of France, to regulate the relations of the French Church at the most acute stage of the conflict between the Council of Basel and Eugenio IV. In June 1438 the King convened at Bourges an assembly of the clergy, at which laymen were also present; he refused to take sides between the two opposing parties, while being willing to promote union. On 7 July he promulgated the p. s., imposing throughout the kingdom the observance of the disciplinary canons decreed up to that time at Basel and revised by the Assembly. The Council approved the p. s. on 17 October 1439. It proclaimed the superiority of the Council over the Pope and sanctioned its periodicity; it limited the intervention of the Pontiff in ecclesiastical appointments, in the collation of benefices, in judgments and appeals; it regulated annates, and also laid down useful provisions concerning the divine office, the morality of the clergy, and the observance of censures. Gallicanism (v.) its most perfect expression and constituted the substance of Gallican liberties in the claim to temper papal authority within the limits of the canons. It was therefore not accepted by the pontiffs, who attempted to obtain its repeal; it ceased to be valid with the Concordat of 1516, but in subsequent centuries the Parliament of Paris sought to restore it to force, unwilling to acquiesce in its decline.