of the twelfth century. It is a private collection, and so the documents of which it is composed have only the authority derived from their origin, unless custom or subsequent approbation has given special canons greater weight. The second volume, on the contrary, contains several official collections, made by the authority of the Holy See. These are the Decretals of Gregory IX, the Sext, and the Clementines. Any papal constitution contained in these collections has authority from the very fact of its insertion in the Corpus Juris. The second volume also contains the Extravagants of John XXII, and the Common Extravagants, both of which are private collections, although inserted in the Corpus Juris.
The Corpus Juris contains the ancient law of the Catholic Church, which has been modified and accommodated to the times by more recent councils and constitutions of the Holy See. The Council of Trent especially made many changes demanded by the altered circumstances of the times, and the Popes have at different times issued a great number of constitutions and laws to meet the constantly changing wants of the Church. These constitutions are usually quoted by giving the Pope's name and the initial words, together with the date of the document.
Early in the year 1904 Pius X ordered the common law of the Western Church to be codified. The work was finished and promulgated by Benedict XV on Whit Sunday, 1917. This new Codex Juris Canonici came into force on May 19, 1918. It has binding force throughout the Western Church. Besides the common law which binds the whole Church, each country, province, and diocese has its own special laws and customs. The four Councils of Westminster contain the special provincial laws which bind the Catholics of England and Wales.
SECTION IV
On Penal and Voiding Laws
I. We saw in Chapter VI that if the legislator chooses, and if he thinks it will be for the public good, he may intend a positive law made by him to bind, not under pain of committing sin by its mere violation, but only under pain of being obliged to pay the penalty imposed. Such a law is, as we saw, called by theologians a penal law. Besides the rules and constitutions of certain religious orders, ecclesiastical legislation does not afford many examples of penal laws. As a rule,
