Folia Theologica 22. (2011)
Szuromi Szabolcs Anzelm O.Praem.: Medieval Canonical Sources and Categories of Singular Administrative Acts
MEDIEVAL CANONICAL SOURCES AND CATEGORIES ... 123 ing to the law of religious - is the authorization for wearing a pallium for some episcopal sees that are not metropolitan. The supreme legislator, as explained by Gratianus in his dictum to C. 25 q. 1 c. 16, may apply his power to dispense the binding power of purely ecclesiastical laws in a singular case, or in relation to a person, for it is he who, as the head and mainstay of the Church, with Petrine authority, is competent to govern the operation of the Church according to the purpose of Christ. Therefore, the granting of privileges against the law is closely bound to the Petrine function of the pope and to the supreme and immediate power of the Roman Pope.78 Among privileges that developed in the tradition laid out above, we may distinguish those of personal characteristic (personale), when the act explicitly bestows some kind of favour on a concrete person. This may be the authorization of wearing a purple biretta, which would not be inherited by the person's successor. The form that extends to more persons than one is the privilegium communitatis. This may be of real character (reale), if it is bound to a thing, place, office, or dignity. In case it is linked purely to a concrete place, we talk of a local privilege (locale). There is also a mixed privilege in cases where rights are given to a society. A privilege is purely favourable (favorabilis), when it does not entail any obligation on a third person; if it does, it is odiosus.79 A right coming from a privilege and exercised or carried in the external forum always required external evidence; positive presumption never sufficed. This meant the demonstration of the letter of privilege, or alternatively of a record or of its copy. This could also be provided by way of the issuance of a new document from the competent ecclesiastical authority, which affirmed the fact of the granting of a privilege earlier. In the middle ages it was a characteristic phenomenon to reaffirm a privilege, even in response to a new request, with identical or expanded content. The reason for this was principally change in the person of 78 Cf. d.p. C. 25 q. 1 c. 16: (...) Sacrosanctae Romana ecclesia ius et auctoritatem sacria canonibus inpertit, sed non eis alligatur. (...) Sic et summae sedis Pontifices canonibus a se siue ab aliis sua auctoritate conditis reuer- entiam exhibent, et eis se humiliando ipsos custodiunt, ut aliis obseruandos exhibeant. (...) In premissis ergo capitulis aliis inponitur necessitas obsequendi: summis uero Pontificibus ostenditur inesse auctoritas obseruandi, ut a se tradita obseruando aliis non contempnenda demonstrent, exemplo Christi, qui sacramenta, que ecclesiae seruanda mandauit, primum in se ipso suscepit, ut ea in se ipso sanctificaret. (...). Friedberg 1.1010-1012. 79 Vermeersch, A. - Creusen, ]., Epitome iuris canonici, I. 96-98.
