Translation of the fifth, sixth and seventh books of the Code of Canon Law with an analytical introduction

Master's thesis in the field of Abrahamic religions

Abstract

Christianity is a religion that grew out of Judaism. Despite this, important developments occurred in the history of Christianity, which resulted in the removal of Sharia from the Christian society. On the other hand, the Christian community also needed religious orders and how to implement them, as well as special laws to regulate relationships between members of their community. Hence, numerous sets of canons arose according to ecclesiastical tradition. The existence of numerous collections in Christianity necessitated the creation of a coherent set of laws by the church. In 1917, Pope Benedict compiled an official collection in Latin. This collection was revised in 1983. The 1983 collection consists of seven books; It includes topics such as church laws, customs, public orders, teachings, obligations, rights of God's people - faithful Christians, priests and clergy - laws of the church's educational administration, material property of the church, and laws related to the administration of church sanctification. The fifth book is related to the economic affairs of the church. How to acquire, maintain, manage and transfer the church's material assets is one of the issues that the church considers to be its inherent right and is clearly discussed in this book. The church spends its property on charity, support of priests and papal affairs.

The sixth book contains the legal laws of the church. The Church considers the punishment of guilty Christians to be its inherent right, therefore it has considered punishments for criminals and considers its purpose of these punishments to be more corrective. It consists of five main parts. Trials and its stages, types of courts, conditions of witnesses and documentary reasons are among the topics that are discussed in detail in this book.

Key words: Catholic Church, law, church law, Aquinas, criminal system.

The church, as a community of Christian believers, at the beginning of its creation, according to Paul's interpretation of the law, lacked religious orders and special laws and a special legal system. This has been the preoccupation of Christian theologians since the early centuries. Little by little, Christian theologians put forth ideas to fill this void, which can be seen in the thoughts of the 13th century theologian, Thomas Aquinas. Plural and sometimes heterogeneous sources and legal ideas arose in Christianity, this necessitated the creation of a coherent set of laws by the church. In 1917, by order of Pope Benedict XV, the set of canons of the Church was compiled, and in 1983, this set was revised by order of Pope John Paul XXIII, in accordance with contemporary political, social and cultural changes. Familiarity with the 1983 set of church rules is important for the scientific community in several ways:

Firstly, this set is one of the official and valid texts of the church community; Therefore, in order to know the church, especially the Catholic Church, it is necessary to be familiar with their texts.

Secondly, in this book, all the issues related to the church community are comprehensively considered, and while it is a set of rules, it also provides the reader with extensive information in the fields of church rituals and rituals, economic and legal. We will discuss and then briefly review the various collections available in the church community. Then we examine the lexical and terminological concept of law from the point of view of the Catholic Church and its types from the point of view of Thomas Aquinas. In the following, we compare church laws with other laws (divine, human and natural). The criminal system of the Catholic Church, which is the sixth book of church laws, is also considered one of the main discussions in this section. At the end, we will have a short summary of the contents of this section.

1. Laws of the Church

"Laws of the Church" [1] is the title of a collection that "in the Middle Ages, was established by the council of bishops and deals with issues such as faith, morals and discipline. The concept of church laws is common among the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican Church sects." [2]

The famous title of this collection in English is (code of canon law) and in Latin, Corpus juris canonici). In Persian language, the title is "Collection of Church Laws" or "Laws of the Church".In Persian language, the title "Collection of Church Laws" or "Church Code" is used for this book.

1-1. The process of formation

The set of church laws has been gradually formed during different periods. In the early periods of the formation of the church, it was customary to collect the rules in a book for easy recognition, use and observance of these rules, especially by priests. The origin of church rules is in the Bible, for example, we can mention the rules of the early church governing circumcision and sacrifice to idols [3], head covering in worship and proper behavior during the Eucharist [4]. [5]

In the early 4th century, ecclesiastical councils passed laws to settle disputes about doctrine and discipline. During this period, the laws were derived from the decrees of the first world councils - Nicaea I [6], Constantinople I [7], and Chalcedon [8] - having extraordinary universal power, and many councils gave canonical status to the decrees of the Church Fathers by combining them with their own decrees and laws. The archbishoprics of Africa and Spain held many ecumenical councils and produced a large body of ecclesiastical laws, which dealt with such matters as ecclesiastical organization, priestly conduct, and penance and absolution. The edicts issued by the popes were also of particular importance, these edicts were related to the problems of the church, and were known as "papal edicts", these edicts began with the edict of Pope Sirikius[9] in 385. When the Roman Empire fell in the West around 476, ecclesiastical law was enforced in different parts of Europe independently, and with the exception of a few organized subsets (for example, penance and absolution), the rest remained largely unknown and disorganized. Around the year 550, John Scholasticus[10] (d. 577), the Patriarch of Constantinople, sought to establish order in this chaotic market by organizing the Greek laws according to the subject, in his Synagogue Law. In the West Dionysius[11] (5th to 6th centuries), established the date of Christ's birth, translated the Greek laws into Latin.[12] Indeed, during the first ten centuries, innumerable collections of ecclesiastical canons had spread more or less everywhere; These informal collections included rules issued by the councils and popes of Rome, as well as other rules taken from less important sources.[13]

By the middle of the twelfth century, a multitude of collections and rules existed, often contradicting each other. During this period, Ivo of Carteret[14] (1115-1040) established rules for interpreting and harmonizing conflicting laws. The organization of ecclesiastical canons reached its peak with the collection of the great medieval monk Gracian[15]. which was later called "Gracian's set of rules"[16]. Gracian has been called the father of modern ecclesiastical law, he collected, codified, and coordinated more than four thousand priestly, conciliar, and papal texts, including the decisions of the Second Lateran Council[17] in all areas of ecclesiastical discipline. Although Gracian's corpus never gained formal authority, it was constantly cited by legislators until its official incorporation into the body of ecclesiastical canon.[18]

Subsequent canons, especially those formulated by the Council of Trent[19] during the Catholic Reformation period and those issued by the various courts of Rome, were never codified into a coherent body. The lack of order and systematic arrangement of laws and the lack of legal certainty in addition to the obsolescence of many laws created a situation where the order of the church was increasingly endangered. Therefore, during the period before the First Vatican Council[20], many bishops requested that a new set of rules be prepared to facilitate the pastoral care of God's people in a more reliable and certain way. Pope Pius X[21], at the beginning of his papacy, accepted this task. After twelve years with the cooperation of specialists, advisers and bishops from all over the Church, on May 27, 1917, this collection was compiled by Benedict XV [22], the successor of Pope Pius X, and it was implemented on May 19, 1918. This collection was called "Pius - Benedictine Collection"[23]. The feature of this collection was to create an impressive cooperation to effectively support the pastor of the church. [24]

Abstract

Christianity is a religion that is boiled and proud within Judaism. Despite, significant changes occurred in Christian history which was subsequently removed the Law from the Christian community.