Folia Theologica 22. (2011)
Szuromi Szabolcs Anzelm O.Praem.: Medieval Canonical Sources and Categories of Singular Administrative Acts
114 Anzelm Sz. SZUROMI senatus (D. 24. 1. 32)39, the consules, proconsules and the gubernatores (D. 1. 16. 9. 1; D. 4. 4. 3; D. 27. 1. 16)40; or the decuriones (D. 3. 5. 30)41 were legally able. Decretum in the vocabulary of canon law had a number of meanings ever since antiquity. Any papal bulla, littera, or motu proprio, insofar as it contained the legislative decision of the Pope of Rome, could be called a decretum.42 This phenomenon well demonstrates the strong dependence of this term on the old above-mentioned categories of Roman Law. Later, however, with the gradual development of the congregational structure—that is, after 1542, when, according to the decision of Paul III, the Sacra Congregatio Universalis Inquisitionis began its work - besides the pope, the congregations themselves also created singular decisions.43 It must be noted, too, that from very early times provincial councils also, within their own competence and added canons, made administrative acts. This latter category obviously differs from the legal effect, genre, and characteristic of those papal decisions which constituted part of the medieval papal singular decisions. The immediate legislative papal power that extends over the universal Church— which is summed up with crystal clarity in the 260th letter of Pope Alexander III44, whose text is used also by the CIC now in effect—is mirrored in the various medieval papal decisions, in their rather di39 D. 24. 1. 32: (...) Si inter virum et uxorem societas donationis causa contracta sit, iure vulgato nulla est, nec post decretum senatus emolumentum ea liberalitas, ut actio pro socio constituatur, habere poterit: quae tamen in commune tenuemnt fine praestituto, revocanda non sunt. (...). Mommsen, T. (ed.), Digesta (retr. Krüger, P.), 316. 40 D. 1. 16. 9: (...) Ubi decretum necessarium est, per libellum id expedire proconsul non poterit: omnia enim, quaecumque causae cognitionem desiderant, per libellum non possunt expediri. (...). Mommsen, T. (ed.), Digesta (retr. Krüger, P.), 15. 41 Mommsen, T. (ed.), Digesta (retr. Krüger, P.), 47. 42 Labandeira, E., Tratado derecho administrativo canonico, 307. 43 Bullarum diplomatum et privilegiorum Sanctorum Romanorum Pontificium collectio, ed. Gaude, F., I-XXIV+App. Augustae Taurinorum 1857-1867, VI. 344; cf. Szuromi, Sz. A., Egyházi intézménytörténet (Bibliotheca Instituti Postgradualis luris Canonici Universitatis Catholicae de Petro Pázmány nominatae 1/4), Budapest 2003. 117-118. 44 Regesta Pontificum Romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum MCXCV1II, ed. Jaffé, P. -Wattenbach, G. curaverunt Loewenfeld, S. [JL] - Kaltenbrunner, F. [JK]-Ewald, P. [JE], I. Lipsiae 1885.2 JL 11047.
