The term was used to denote the system of
canonical law beginning in the thirteenth century. The term
corpus (Latin for 'body') here denotes a collection of documents;
corpus juris, a collection of laws, especially if they are placed in systematic order. It may signify also an official and complete collection of a legislation made by the legislative power, comprising all the laws which are in force in a country or society. The term, although it never received legal sanction in either Roman or canon law, being merely academic phraseology, is used in the above sense when the
Corpus Juris Civilis of the Christian
Roman emperors is meant. The expression
corpus juris may also mean, not the collection of laws itself, but the legislation of a society considered as a whole. Hence
Pope Benedict XIV could rightly say that the collection of his Bulls formed part of the corpus juris. One best explains the signification of the term
corpus juris canonici by showing the successive meanings which were usually assigned to it in the past and at the present day. Under the name of "corpus canonum" ('body of
canons') were designated the collection of
Dionysius Exiguus and the
Collectio Anselmo dedicata (see below). The
Decretum of
Gratian is already called
Corpus juris canonici by a
glossator of the 12th century, and
Innocent IV calls by this name the
Decretales or
Decretals of Gregory IX. Since the second half of the 13th century,
Corpus juris canonici in contradistinction to the
Roman Corpus Juris Civilis of
Justinian I, generally denoted the following collections: the "Decretals" of
Gregory IX; those of
Boniface VIII (Sixth Book of the Decretals); those of
Clement V (Clementinæ) i. e. the collections which at that time, with the
Decretum of Gratian, were taught and explained at the universities. At the present day, under the above title are commonly understood these three collections with the addition of the
Decretum of Gratian, the
Extravagantes (laws 'circulating outside' the standard sources) of John XXII, and the
Extravagantes Communes. Thus understood, the term dates back to the 16th century and was officially sanctioned by
Gregory XIII. The earliest editions of these texts printed under the now usual title of
Corpus juris canonici, date from the end of the 16th century (Frankfort, 8vo, 1586; Paris, fol., 1587). In the strict sense of the word the Church does not possess a
corpus juris clausum ('closed body of law'), i. e. a collection of laws to which new ones cannot be added. The
Council of Basle (Sess. XXIII, ch. vi) and the decree of the Congregation "
Super statu regularium" (25 January 1848) do not speak of a
corpus clausum; the first refers to "
reservationibus in corpore juris expresse clausis": reservations of ecclesiastical benefices contained in the
Corpus juris, especially in the
Liber sextus of Boniface VIII, to the exclusion of those held in the
Extravagantes described below, and at that time not comprised in the
Corpus juris canonici; the second speaks of "
cuilibet privilegio, licet in corpore juris clauso et confirmato", i. e. of privileges not only granted by the
Holy See but also inserted in the official collections of canon law. == Jus novum and Corpus juris canonici ==