Pasteur - Juris Canonici - 1712

Melchioris Pastoris' Canon Law in the alma Aqui-sextiensi Academia, 1712

The work of the canonist Melchior Pasteur, published in 1712 at the “alma Aqui-sextiensi academia,” is a systematic textbook of ecclesiastical law in the post-Tridentine tradition. It stands in the line of early modern treatments of the Corpus iuris canonici and serves the orderly presentation of norms codified in the Decretals, Sext, Clementines and other collections. The author elucidates the principal sources of canon law in clearly structured sections, which follow the then-common division into general norms, the constitution of the Church, sacramental law, property law, penal provisions, and procedural law.

Special emphasis is placed on conveying the provisions relevant for study, court practice, and pastoral care, for example on the legal status of clerics and laypeople, ecclesiastical offices, marriage and impediments to marriage, as well as ecclesiastical penalties and procedural rules. The presentation combines scholastic method with practically oriented casuistry and is thus aimed at aspiring canonists as well as practitioners in church courts. The work is also an important document of the legal culture of the Roman Catholic Church before the codification of the modern Codex Iuris Canonici; it reflects the theological-legal way of thinking of the early 18th century and the role of canon law as a comprehensive normative order for faith life, church hierarchy, and administration.

38x24 cm. 490 pages. Contemporary full leather binding of the period with small defects on the upper and lower spine. Internally only slightly browned/brown-spotted, otherwise very well preserved.