///./. BeSS. wiii. c. 1 I. /'• Re/.). But if the promoted
ecclesiastic officiates according to the higher order thus
illicitly conferred on him without the episcopal dispen- sation, he becomes irregular, and needs papal dispensa-
in. x, De Cler. per salt. prom, v, 29). I secration of a hi shop, with omission of the presbj t crate,
would not only be illicit, but utterly void I 1
jin. x. />< excess. praL v. 31).— Wetzer n.Welte, Kir~
< !o n-Lexikon, s. v.
PROMPSAULT
629
PROPAGANDA
Prompsault, Jean Henri Romaix, a French ec- clesiastical writer, was born April 7, 1798, at Monta- lerubert. He was the eldest of twelve children. After he had finished his classical studies in the little semi- nary, he was received into the large seminary of Va- lence, and was admitted to the priesthood two years before the required age, Nov. 5, 1821. At first cm- ployed to do curate's duty in the office of his parish, he taught dogmatic theology in the great seminary of Va- lence, and ended in doing parochial duty. Having been appointed in 1827 to the chair of philosophy in the College of Tournon, he refused, without being au- thorized by his bishop, to take the oath required by the professors by the ordinance of 1828. and was de- posed. At the end of 1829 he went to Paris, and was attached to M. de Croi, then head chaplain to the hos- pital of Quinze Vingt, in the capacity of chaplain. He saved that establishment from downfall in 1831. In this humble position the abbe Prompsault, although scrupulously fulfilling the obligations of priest and chap- lain, had yet considerable time to give to study. He put aside "the largest share of the receipts of his publi- cations and of his literary pension to buy books, and he formed an ecclesiastical library of 25,000 volumes. He began his literary career by publishing a critical edition of the works of Villon in 1832, and in 1835 he published a criticism of an edition of French literature published by Crapelet. This last work engaged him in a lively controversy with Crapelet, in which he defended him- self with a calm and witty sarcasm which was after- wards the characteristic of his polemical writings. He occupied himself for many years with the Latin and Ro- mance languages. In 1837 he published many trans- lations of ascetic works. His principal study was canon law and the civil and ecclesiastical jurisprudence of France. Himself a thorough Gallican, he discarded the ultramontane tendencies of the French episcopacy, and advocated the liberties of the Gallican Church. In this spirit he attacked the encyclical of pope Pius IX, and brought such odium upon himself that he was led to retract much that he had uttered against ultra-Koman- ism, though at heart he always felt his first course to have been the true and proper one. His last years were imbittered by remorse, and he died Jan. 7, 1858, neg- lected by those for whom he had sacrificed his honor. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s. v. See Christian Re- membrancer, xliv, 3-10; Vapereau, Diet, des Contempo- rains, s. v.
Promulgation or Publication, i. e. proclama- tion— usually of a law by the competent legislative power — is, in the Church of Rome, an absolute condi- tion of its binding character ("lex non promulgata non obligat," c. i, 9 ; Cod. De Legib. i, 14). In consequence, an ecclesiastical law, like any civil law, in order to become obligatory in foro externo must be promulgated in the customary way by the competent authorities of the Church. The binding power of the law rests entirely on the will of the legislator publicly expressed, and be- gins at the very moment of the promulgation (" lex pro- mulgata statim obligat," c. 1, x; De post, preel. i, 5), unless some future period is expressly indicated when it shall be enforced (f. inst. Sext. c. 32; De Praib. iii, 4; Cone. Trid. sess. xxiv, c. \,fm. De Ref. i\ fat rim.). A law has generally no retroactive power (" lex non retro agit," c. 2, x; De Constit. i, 2), unless it be merely an explanation or reiteration of a former disposition, or unless retroactive power be expressly given to it. From the moment of the promulgation takes effect also the juridical presumption of the general knowledge of the law, which excludes even,'- excuse of ignorantia legis (Sext. c. 13; De R. T. v, 13), unless the legislator sub- ordinates the validity of the ordinance to the observa- tion of a certain form of promulgation, and this form has not been observed. Every one whom the law may concern is bound to conform to it as soon as he has ob- tained, no matter by what means, a knowledge of it. The diocesan ordinances of archbishops and bishops are,
as a rule, communicated to the deaconries, and through them, by circular letters, to the curates, etc., who publish them from the pulpit, or by placards at the church doors. The papal see used in former times to address its ordi- nances to the chief ecclesiastical dignitaries of the coun- tries, provinces, or dioceses which they concerned, and had them communicated by them to the subordinate clerical authorities, for further publication, by way of synods and circular letters. Afterwards the custom prevailed of publishing the general prescriptions of the- papal see only at Rome, in acie campi Flora?, and of posting them at the door of the Vatican. Thus the prin- ciple was adopted, publicatio Urbi et Orbi. which was acknowledged without contest until the 17th century. It was only after the times of De Marca (De Goncordid Sacerdotii et Imperii, lib. ii, c. 15) and Van Espen (De I'romidijatione Legum Eeel, etc., Lovan. 1712) that the necessity of a more special promulgation was from many quarters insisted upon. But the passages of the Roman and canon law quoted to support these views are all of them misunderstood or purposely distorted (Seitz, Zeit- schrift fiir Kirchenredtt v. Pastoral- Wissenschaft. vol. i, § 1, No. 5, p. 90 sq.). It must strike every one that a really universal publication, -which would be sure not only to reach every individual, but to be intelligible to him, is utterly impossible, and could not be obtained even by inserting the law in all official and local papers. The binding power of the law cannot depend on that circumstance that it was really made known in all places and to every individual, but on this sole condition that the legislator have publicly expressed his will in the customary way. This act of the legislator must not be confounded with the means and ways that are resorted to in order to insure the widest publicity to the law promulgated by the legislative authority. The latter is no concern of the legislator, but of the executive authorities; and it is not the power of the law that de- pends on it, but this other and quite different question, to be decided by the judge, whether in a given concrete case transgression of the law may be charged or not. However, the different modern civil legislations insist on a special publication of the ecclesiastical statutes as a condition of their validity, and subordinate this pub- lication to the previous approbation of the civil power. If the Church is content to submit to the worldly gov- ernments her ordinances, so far as they affect in some way the civil and political relations of her members, it would be only fair if such papal and episcopal decrees which concern exclusively the dogma and the dogmatic side of the discipline should be independent of the civil placet, and left to the clerical functionaries for free pub- lication.— Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, s. v.