Folia Theologica 22. (2011)
Szuromi Szabolcs Anzelm O.Praem.: Medieval Canonical Sources and Categories of Singular Administrative Acts
122 Anzelm Sz. SZUROMI isting laws with further rights in regard to a concrete person, but not in opposition to the general norm (praeter ius). In case the privilege contained such an authorization or right that did not fit into the system of regulations in effect, or was explicitly in opposition to them, then we are speaking of a privilege against the law - according to old usage, privilegium contra ius.7i Such an act gave a dispensation to its obtainers from something generally forbidden, or from observing the rule prescribed by the principal regulation. The granting of an authorization to the ob- tainer happened in either an immediate or mediate form, and could be granted both in words and writing. A verbal privilege was considered valid within the forum of conscience (forum conscientiae). If, on the other hand, the character of a privilege demanded that the obtained right should be exercised by the obtainer in the external forum, then it was given in the public form of privilege, that is, by way of rescript, or with the record of the competent authority. Later, well after the Council of Trent, Pope Urban VIII dedicated a separate rescript to this question with the beginning Alias felicis on 20th December 1631.74 75 Among the many examples, the most characteristic are perhaps those privileges that were granted to various religious groups, abbacies, provostries, or even chapters of cathedrals, not only in the area of celebrating feasts, the application of liturgical rules, or the wearing of insigniae, but also in the area of exemption from the obligation of surrendering tax. We may also mention here the privilege of the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, that the diaconal and presbyteral degrees of Holy Orders may be immediately received by the ordinandi consecutively, even in one and the same Mass. This privilege first appeared with papal permission granted to the request for the ordination of St. Norbert of Xanten, in order to dispense him from irregularity of ordination; it then later obtained affirmation in the modern age by Pope Benedict XIV on 1st September 1750 with the beginning ''Oneroso''/6 and is in effect even today.77 A similar example - not relat74 Labandeira, E., Tratado derecho administrativo canonico, 322-323. 75 Bullarum diplomatum et privilegiorum Sanctorum Romanorum Pontificum collectio, XIV. 258-260. 76 Cf. Benedictus XIV (7 Sept. 1750), Oneroso sacri apostolatus ministerio, in Sanctissimi Domini Nostri Benedicti Papae XIV. Bullarium, III. Venetiis 1778. 137-138. 77 Szuromi, Sz. A., La riforma della vita dei canonici (La configurazione dei diritto proprio delYOrdine Premostratense e il nuovo Codice di Diritto Canonico), in Angelicum 85 (2008) 1089-1099, especially 1097-1098.
