Folia Theologica 22. (2011)

Szuromi Szabolcs Anzelm O.Praem.: Medieval Canonical Sources and Categories of Singular Administrative Acts

MEDIEVAL CANONICAL SOURCES AND CATEGORIES ... 125

the Liber Extra,83 84 in VI1.11.1 of the Liber Sextus,84 and in 22. 7. un. of the Extravagantes Lohannis.85 The canon lawyers discussed dispensation from the binding force of law in more fundamental units: dispensation in general; dispensations concerning marriage; dispensations from vows, including religious vows; and dispensations from compulsory fast and abstinence. In the classification of dispensations, regarding their form and content, distinction was made between explicit and implicit; conditional and unconditional; and dispensation concerning an individual case or repeated action.86 If it exempted from the entirety of the binding force of a law, canonists spoke of dispensatio perfecta; if it exempted only partially, it belonged to the category of dispensatio inmper- fecta. Every legislator was entitled to grant a dispensation from his own law on the ground of the legal principle that can be read at the beginning of the legal rules linked to the name of Gregory IX: "Everything generated by a cause vanishes by the same cause." In a similar manner, the 46th principle of the regulae iuris in the Liber Sextus VI. 5. 12. 1, promulgated by Boniface VIII, established that the successor of the legis83 X 1. 11. 15: (...) quum illi huiusmodi dispensatio a canone minime sit permissa, quam ad solum Romanum Pontificem non est dubium pertinere, ipsi obtemperare non debuit in hac parte; tum etiam, quia reatum periurii saepius variavit, iurando prius, quod archiepiscopus id praeceperat, et poste, quod illud non mandaverat in iudicio confitendo, ipsum de fratrum nostrorum consilio tamdiu ab ordinandi suspendimus potestat, donec nostram meruerit gratiam obtinere. Friedberg II. 122-124.

84 VI1.11.1: (...) Ad ordines quoque maiores, vel beneficia curam animarum habentia, super quibus nequit episcopus dispensare, sine dispensatione sedis apostolicae promoveri non potest. §. 1. Ille vero, cum quo per sedem dispensatur eandem, ut, praemisso non obstante defectu, valeat ad beneficium, etiamsi curam animarum habeat, promoveri, nequit praetextu dispensationis huiusmodi, (quam exorbitantem a iure oportet veluti odiosam- restringi,) nisi unicum beneficium obtinere. Friedberg II. 977.

85 Extrav. Com. 7. un.: (...) Episcopos quoque et eorum superiores etetiam alios praelatos quoscunque, qui praedictis personis vel aliis rium vivendi et habitum supra dictos praeter specialem apostolicae sedis auctoritatem deinceps concesserint, praedeatae excimmunicationis poene ipso iure decernimus subiacere. Dignum est enim, ut adulterinas plantationes, quas non Pater coelestis, sed humanae temeritatis audacia plantat, apostolid culminis censura divellat, nec patiatur in argo dominico preversae congregationis vepres excrescere, cui proprium est, divina opitulante gratia virtutes sercere, ac vita radicitus exstirpare. Nulli ergo, etc. Friedberg II. 1213-1214.

86 Vermeersch, A. - Creusen, J., Epitome iuris canonici, I. 105.