e the main part into seven
_distinctiones_, containing each several _canones_. The third part,
which is entitled _De Consecratione_, gives, in five _distinctiones_,
the law bearing on church ritual and the sacraments. The following is
the method of citation. A reference to the first part indicates the
initial words or number of the _canon_ and the number of the
_distinctio_, e.g. can. Propter ecclesiasticas, dist. xviii. or c. 15,
d. xviii. The second part is cited by the _canon, causa_ and _quaestio_,
e.g. can. Si quis suadente, C. 17, qu. 4, or c. 29, C. xvii., qu. 4. The
treatise _De Poenitentia_, forming the 3rd _quaestio_ of the 33rd
_causa_ of the second part, is referred to as if it were a separate
work, e.g. c. Principium, D. ii. de poenit. or c. 45, D. ii. de poenit.
In quoting a passage from the third part the _canon_ and _distinctio_
are given, e.g. c. Missar. solenn. D.I. de consecrat., or c. 12, D.I.
de consecr.

Authority.

Considered from the point of view of official authority, the _Decretum_
occupies an intermediate position very difficult to define. It is not
and cannot be a really official code, in which every text has the force
of a law. It has never been recognized as such, and the pretended
endorsement of it by Pope Eugenius III. is entirely apocryphal.
Moreover, it could not have become an official code; it would be
impossible to transform into so many laws either the discordant texts
which Gratian endeavoured to reconcile or his own _Dicta_; a treatise on
canon Law is not a code. Further, there was as yet no idea of demanding
an official compilation. The _Decretum_ has thus remained a work of
private authority, and the texts embodied in it have only that legal
value which they possess in themselves. On the other hand, the
_Decretum_ actually enjoys a certain public authority which is unique;
for centuries it has been the text on which has been founded the
instruction in canon law in all the universities; it has been glossed
and commented on by the most illustrious canonists; it has become,
without being a body of laws, the first part of the _Corpus juris
canonici_, and as such it has been cited, corrected and edited by the
popes. It has thus, by usage, obtained an authority perfectly recognized
and accepted by the Church.[25]

After Gratian.

Gratian's collection, for the very reason that it had for its aim the
creation of a systematic canon law, was a work of a transitional
charact