rent nations; each of
them has its own local law, which we must briefly mention here. In
theory, this law has as its author the local ecclesiastical authorities,
councils or bishops; but this is true only for laws and regulations
which are in harmony with the common law, merely completing or defining
it. But if it is a question of derogating from the common law, the
authority of the Holy See must intervene to legalize these derogations.
This intervention takes the form either of "indults," i.e. graceful
concessions granted at the request of the episcopate, or of special
approbation of conciliary resolutions. It would, however, be impossible
to mention any compilations containing only local law. Whether in the
case of national or provincial councils, or of diocesan synods, the
chief object of the decrees is to reinforce, define or apply the law;
the measures which constitute a derogation have only a small place in
them. It is, then, only in a limited sense that we can see a local canon
law in the councils of the various regional churches. Having made this
remark, we must distinguish between the countries which are still
subject to the system of concordats and other countries.

Countries subject to concordats.

In the case of the former, the local law is chiefly founded on the
concordat (q.v.), including the derogations and privileges resulting
from it. The chief thing to note is the existence, for these countries,
of a civil-ecclesiastical law, that is to say, a body of regulations
made by the civil authority, with the consent, more or less explicit, of
the Church, about ecclesiastical matters, other than spiritual; these
dispositions are chiefly concerned with the nomination or confirmation
by the state of ecclesiastics to the most important benefices, and with
the administration of the property of the Church; sometimes also with
questions of jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, concerning the
persons or property of the Church. It is plain that the agreements under
the concordats have a certain action upon a number of points in the
canonical laws; and all these points go to constitute the local
concordatory law. This is the case for Austria, Spain, Portugal,
Bavaria, the Prussian Rhine provinces, Alsace, Belgium, and, in America,
Peru. Up to 1905 it was also the case in France, where the ancient local
customs now continue, pending the reorganization of the Church without
the concordat.

We do not imply that in