The Codex Juris Canonici (1917)

Since the closing off of the Corpus Juris Canonici, there had been no official or noteworthy private collection of the canon law except for the constitutions of Pope Benedict XIV (reigned 1740–58). The material was spread out in the collections of the Corpus Juris Canonici and in the generally very incomplete private publications of the acta of popes, of general and local councils, and the various Roman congregations and legal organs, which made canon law into something unmanageable and uncertain. The need for codification was recognized even more because of the fact that since the end of the 18th century, secular law had undergone a period of great codification. Several private attempts to do this had met with little success.

On March 19, 1904, Pius X announced his intention to complete the codification, and he named a commission of 16 cardinals, with himself as chairman. Bishops and university faculties were asked to cooperate. The schemata of the five books that were prepared in Rome—universal norms, personal law, law of things, penal law, and procedural law—were proposed in the years 1912–14 to all those who would ordinarily be summoned to an ecumenical council, and with their observations were then reworked in the cardinals’ commission. The entire undertaking and all the drafts were under the papal seal of secrecy and were not published. Meanwhile, Pius X introduced various reforms that were to a great degree the results of the commission’s work. In July 1916 the preparations for the Codex Juris Canonici (“Code of Canon Law”) were completed. The code was promulgated on Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 1917, and became effective on Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 1918.

In contrast to all earlier official collections, this code was a complete and exclusive codification of all universal church law then binding in the Latin church. Out of fear of political difficulties, a systematic handling of public church law, especially what concerned the relations between church and state, was omitted. Its main purpose was to offer a codification of the law, and only incidentally adaptation, and so it introduced relatively little that was new legislation. The 2,414 canons were divided into five books that no longer followed the system of the collections of decretals but did follow that of the Perugian canonist Paul Lancelotti’s Institutiones juris canonici (1563; “Institutions of Canon Law”), which in turn went back to the division of the 2nd-century Roman lawyer Gaius’s Institutiones—one section on persons, two sections on things, and one section on actions—and was based on the fundamental idea of Roman law—i.e., subjective right. In some editions the sources that were used by the editors were indicated at the individual canons. With the publication of the codex these sources belonged to the history of the law. Older general and particular law, in conflict with the codex, was given up and, insofar as it was not in conflict with it, served only as a means for interpreting the code. The old law of custom in conflict with the code and expressly reprobated by it was rendered null; when not reprobated and 100 years old or immemorial, it could be allowed by ordinaries for pressing reasons. Acquired rights and concordats in force remained in force. With this change, an independent science of the history of canon law became necessary, in addition to the dogmatic canonical science of canon law on the basis of the code.

In order to ensure the unity of the codification and the law, a commission of cardinals was established on September 15, 1917, for the authentic interpretation of the new code. At the same time it was decided that the cardinals’ congregations should no longer make new general decrees but only instructions for the carrying out of the prescriptions of the code. Should a general decree appear necessary, it was determined, the commission would formulate new canons and insert them into the code. Neither of these decisions was carried out. Only two canons were altered and congregations promulgated numerous general decrees. New papal legislation complemented and altered the law of the code.

The Eastern churches in union with Rome

Catholic Eastern churches (churches in union with the Roman Catholic Church) retain their own traditions in liturgy and church order, insofar as these are not considered to be in conflict with the norms taken by Rome to be divine law. In 1929 Pius XI set up a commission of cardinals for the codification of canon law valid for all Uniate churches in the East. In the following year a commission was established for the preparation of the codification and another for the collection of the sources of Eastern law, in which experts of all rites were involved. These collections were published in three series, begun respectively in 1930, 1935, and 1942.

In 1935 the preparatory commission became the Pontifical Commission for the Redaction of the Codex Juris Canonici Orientalis (“Code of Oriental Canon Law”). The cooperation of all Eastern ordinaries (bishops, patriarchs, and others having jurisdictions) was requested, and the drafts of the various documents were sent to them. Thereafter four parts were published: in 1949, on marriage law; in 1952, on the law for monks and other religious, on ecclesiastical properties, and a title De Verborum Significatione (“Concerning the Meaning of Words,” a series of definitions of legal terms used in the canons); and in 1957, on constitutional law, especially of the clergy. The still-incomplete codification followed the Latin code with the assimilation of the authentic interpretation and with textual corrections, as well as with the insertion of the general law proper to the Eastern churches, including the Orthodox churches, regarding the patriarchs and their synods, marriage law, the law of religious, and other matters. The promulgation was made only in Latin in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the official organ of the Holy See. The Catholic Eastern churches came under the Congregation for the Eastern Churches that was established on January 6, 1862, by Pius IX as part of the Propaganda Fide; it was made independent by Benedict XV on May 1, 1917, and expanded considerably by Pius XI on March 25, 1938. Roman legislation as well as the jurisdiction of a congregation of the Roman Curia was criticized as being incompatible with the traditional autonomy of the Eastern churches in legislation and administration.