Folia Theologica et Canonica 2. 24/16 (2013)

IUS CANONICUM - Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi, O.Praem., Gradual Promotion asa Specific Form of Provision of Ecclesiastical Office

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SZABOLCS ANZELM SZUROMI, O.PRAEM.

ly peculiar to canon law, because it has survived also in the legal system of one state - although in a continuously more fragmentary form. This is the system of provision of offices of the British Royal Navy. Even yet the so called Medieval Black Book of Admiralty determined the different levels of the list of rank of classifications of captains on the basis of gradualis promotio, in which the advancement is prerequisite to the state of admiralty and the prerogatives linked to it. This was affirmed during the reign of King Charles II (1649-1685) with the decision of the English Parliament in 1661, which was followed later by numerous changes until the Naval Discipline Acts in 1957, which - despite the subsequent amendments and narrowing resulting from them, as well as the essential structural reorganization of central direction - continues to preserve this specific procedural form of provision of office.53

The function and competence of chapters - in the footsteps of the documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and of the norm of Ecclesiae imago of the Congregation of Bishops in 22 February 197354 - in the new Code of Canon Law underwent to a fundamental change. Canon 504 of CIC reserves the right to founding a cathedral chapter to the Apostolic See55, but the approval of the rules of the respective chapters, and the promotion of canons - including capitular dignities - got into the jurisdiction of the competent diocesan bishop.56 Therefore the diocesan bishop can exercises these rights not in dependence of a privilege acquired from the Holy See. The chapter of CIC De canon- icorum capitulis (cc. 503-510) does not make any reference to contents of lex fundationis, and it restricts itself to general directives even in regarding statutes {statuta), in which there is no mention of gradualis promotio as a form of provision of office.

As above we tried to support it with detailed arguments, the disposition of CIC (1917) on the provision of capitular offices57 and the silence of the effective CIC in this regard made it possible to gradulalis promotio, as a possible

53 Raithby, J. (ed.), The statutes that passed into law under Charles I and Charles II, including the legislation of the Long and Short Parliaments before the Interregnum, and of the Restoration after, London 1819. About the detailed historical background cf. Rodger, N. A. M., The Command of the Ocean (A Naval History of Britain II: 1649-1815), London 2006.

54 SC Episcopis, Normáé, Ecclesiae imago (22 feb. 1973): Ochoa, X. (ed.), Leges ecclesiae post Codicem iuris canonici editae, V. Roma 1980, nn. 92, 109, 135, 172-173 (6491-6492, 6496, 6505,6518-6519).

55 CIC Can. 504 - Capituli cathedralis erectio, innovatio aut suppressio Sedi Apostolicae reservan- tur.

56 CIC Can. 505 - Unumquoque capitulum, sive cathédrale sive collegiale, sua habeat statuta, per legitimum actum capituiarem condita atque ab Episcopo dioecesano probata; quae statuta ne immutentur neve abrogentur, nisi approbante eodem Episcopo dioecesano. Cf. Erdő, P., Egyházjog, 364. Marzoa, A. - Miras, J. - Rodríguez-Ocana, R. (ed.), Comentario esegètico al Código de Derecho Canònico, I-V. Pamplona 1996. II. 1176-1177 (Loza, F.).

57 CIC (1917) Can. 396 § 2; cf. Vermeersch, A. - Creusen, J., Epitome iuris canonici, I. 263- 264, 266.