CORPUS IURIS CANONICI

Term used to indicate six compilations of canon law, namely, (1) the Decretum of gratian (c. 1140), (2) the Decretals of gregory ix (1234), (3) the liber sextus of boniface viii (1298), (4) the clementinae (1317),(5) the Extravagantes Ioannis XXII (1325), and (6) the Extravagantes communes (1500, 1503). These compilations served as the basis for Canon Law from the early 16th century up to the second decade of the 20th century. They were referred to as the Corpus iuris canonici by Pope gregory xiii when, in the brief Cum pro munere pastorali (1580), he approved as textually authentic an edition of them made by the Correctores Romani.

The content of the Corpus iuris canonici was determined by its being largely a revision of a three-volume collection of Church legislation entitled Corpus iuris canonici, that two Paris legists, Jean Chappuis and Vitalis de Thebes, had prepared between 1499 and 1502 for the Parisian printers Ulrich Guering and Berthold Rembolt. To the three authenticated collections (Decretals, Sext, Clementines) and the private collection of Gratian, Chap-puis had added two sets of extravagantes, the first of which (namely, those of John XXII) had been circulating since 1325, and the second of which appears to have been put together by Chappuis himself. By the end of the Council of Trent, this arrangement was so well established that Pius IV decided in 1563 to revise and reissue officially the texts in the Chappuis Corpus. Subsequently, in 1566, a commission of cardinals was set up by Pius V to ascertain the authenticity of the texts in the Decretum, a work upon which some 28 experts were engaged until 1580. A perfunctory revision was made of the other parts of the Corpus.

In 1582 all six collections were issued, not as Corpus iuris canonici, but under their own separate titles, in three volumes (Decretum; Decretals; Sextus, Clementines, Extravagantes). Although later usage tended to restrict the term Corpus to the works found in this Roman edition, the body of Church law was in no way declared complete or closed by this promulgation and the papal use of the term Corpus. For one thing, the Roman Corpus did not go beyond the limit of 1484 set by Chappuis; for another, it took no account of conciliar legislation later than the Council of Vienne (1311–12).

Although attempts were made afterward to codify legislation enacted after 1484, for example, in an ill-fated Liber Septimus commissioned by Gregory XIII himself, the Roman edition of 1580 remained the only authenticated Corpus in the Western Church until the Code of Canon Law of 1917. It was reprinted often; the most recent edition is that of A. Friedberg, Corpus iuris canonici. Editio Lipsiensis secunda post A. L. Richteri curas ad librorum manu scriptorum et editionis romanae fidem, v.1. Decretum Magistri Gratiani; v.2. Decretalium Collectiones (Leipzig 1879–81).

Bibliography: p. torquebiau, Dictionnaire de droit canonique, ed. r. naz (Paris 1935–65) 4:610–664. p. cimetier, Les Sources du droit ecclésiastique (Paris 1930). a. m. stickler, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiberg 1957–65) 3:65–69. a. m. stickler, Historia iuris canonici latini: v.1, Historia fontium (Turin 1950) 272–276. j. f. von schulte, Die Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des kanonischen Rechts (Graz 1956) 3:69–71. a. van hove, Commentarium Lovaniense in Codicem iuris canonici 1 (Mechlin 1928–) 1:368.

[l. e. boyle]