Regarding the Historical Transcendence of the Initiative of S. Pius X in View of the Project of the Code of Canon Law

Abstract

This article aims to show how Pope Sarto took a clear position in favor of using the modern state legislative technique of codification, not to carry out a serious reform of canon law, but rather to collect the canonical laws received from the past in a manageable legal body and in clear and synthetic formulations. The recent bibliography usually recognizes the central role of Pope Sarto in this accomplishment, which he saw as the crowning of his many reforms in the heart of the Church. In order to be better comprehend the historical scope of the first codification, there is a review of the previous canonical collections.