for ordination. When the book is completed by the publication of the Second Part, the English Bishops may perhaps be able to recommend it for this purpose, and so give it an authority which the work of a private person can never claim. The publication of the Second Part will depend on the reception the present part meets with. CAMBRIDGE, April 26, 1883. TO THE READER. THE word "official" is used in two senses in the following pages: (1) To denote any office-holder; (2) to denote one of the Bishop's deputy-judges. The former is the common meaning; in the latter sense the word is used chiefly in such phrases as "vicar-general and official." A. Schools (57-59). B. Colleges and Chapters (60–64). A. Competence of the Court (5-8). B. Introduction of the Cause (9, 10). CHAPTER II. CRIMES A. Offences against God (17-31). B. Offences against our Neighbours (32-39). PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH CANON LAW. PLAN OF THE WORK. THIS "First Book" of Canon Law consists of two parts: I. A General Introduction to the Canon Law of the Church; and II. The Special Law of the English Church. The former part has for Prolegomena a few definitions. and axioms which must be borne in mind through the whole book; then follows a short summary of the general law of the Church, divided in the usual manner into three sections: (1) of Persons; (2) of Things; (3) of Judgments;a division derived from the Institutes of Justinian. This part is taken mainly from Lequeux's Manuale Compendium, and few of his statements have been altered or modified; for although some rest on authority not now generally recognized in England, yet they are useful as indicating the 84 B direction in which legislation must take place amongst us when the Church regains the use of its legislative power.* The second part is composed of (1) a summary account of the Corpus Juris Canonici, with the Regula Juris from the Sext, because it was received as authoritative in England until the Submission of the Clergy in 1532; (2) the text of Lyndwood's Provinciale and of the Legatine Constitutions of Otho and Othobon, with a selection of the notes of Lyndwood and Athon, followed by an account of the Submission of the Clergy; (3) a brief account of the proceedings of Convocation since that date, with the text of the canons of 1604 and 1641. The various Acts of Parliament relating to the Church and clergy will be noticed only incidentally, as it is obvious they form no part of the canon law, and are not in themselves binding on any Christian; and, besides this, there are already published many legal handbooks for the benefit of churchmen, which contain all that is needful to be known in order to satisfy the requirements of the State. * Lequeux's book is in four volumes: the first volume, with the tract De Scholis in the second, and the section De Irregularitatibus in the third, are contained in § 1; the remainders of volumes ii. and iii. are summarized in §§ 2, 3; the fourth volume, containing the history, has scarcely been touched. |