binding. Many canonists maintained that in this matter canon law followed the civil law, which required that a new ordinance should be promulgated in the different provinces of the Empire, and should begin to bind after a period of two months. In recent times the opinion has become prevalent that authoritative publication in Rome is, by the very fact, promulgation for the whole Church. This is certainly sufficient if the Supreme Pontiff makes known his intention to bind the whole Church by mere publication in Rome, as Leo XIII seems to have done in his legislation about forbidden books: [1] Not unfrequently there is a special clause in ecclesiastical laws which defines the mode of promulgation, as in the decree Tametsi of the Council of Trent (sess. 24, De Ref. Matrim., c. i), in the Constitution of Clement XIV, Dominus ac Redemptor, July 21, 1773, and in the Constitution of Leo XIII, Romanos Pontifices, May 8, 1881 . Sometimes a new law is sent to the Bishops, whose duty it is to see to the execution of the Pontiff's will.
The new Code of Canon Law prescribes (Can. 9) that laws made by the Apostolic See are promulgated by their publication in the official Acta Apostolicae Sedis, unless in particular cases some other mode of promulgation is prescribed; and they only begin to have force after the elapse of three months from the date of the number of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis in which they are published, unless from the nature of the matter they bind immediately or a shorter or longer term is specially and expressly laid down in the law itself.
The Fathers of a Plenary or Provincial Council themselves determine the mode and time of promulgation of the decrees of the Council after revision by the Sacred Congregation of the Council (Can. 291); a Bishop determines the mode of promulgation of his own laws in or out of Synod (Can. 335, sec. 2).
2. From what has been already said it will be clear how a law differs from a precept. A law is a regulation made by a public authority for the common good, and directly affects a definite territory, and indirectly those who live therein. It is stable and permanent, as is the society for whose good it is made. A precept, on the other hand, is imposed also by private authority for the good of the individual, and directly affects the person haeret ossibus. Regularly a precept is limited in time and expires with the death or removal from office of him who gave it.
- ↑ Index librorum prohibitorum, 1900.
