The 1917 Code of Canon Law, also referred to as the Pio-Benedictine Code, is the first official comprehensive codification of Latin canon law.
Title page of the 1918 edition of the 1917 CIC
Pope Pius X, who ordered the codification of canon law in 1904
Pietro Cardinal Gasparri, architect of the 1917 Code
Pope Benedict XV, who promulgated the 1917 Code
Canon law of the Catholic Church
The canon law of the Catholic Church is "how the Church organizes and governs herself". It is the system of laws and ecclesiastical legal principles made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Catholic Church to regulate its external organization and government and to order and direct the activities of Catholics toward the mission of the Church. It was the first modern Western legal system and is the oldest continuously functioning system of law in the West, while the unique traditions of Eastern Catholic canon law govern the 23 Eastern Catholic particular churches sui iuris.
Image of pages from the Decretum of Burchard of Worms, the 11th-century book of canon law
Gratian, the "Father of Canon Law"
Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, architect of the 1917 Code of Canon Law
Portrayal of a meeting of the Roman Rota
