THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Molitor, Ueber kanonisches Gerichtsverfahren gegen Kleriker, Mainz, 1856; F. Kober, Die Suspension der Kirchendiener, Tubingen, 1862; idem, Deposition und Degradation nach den Grundsatzen des kirchlichen Rechts, ib. 1867;
D. Bouix, Tractatus de judiciis ecclesiasticis, 2 vols., Paris, 1866; N. Miinohen, Das kanonische Gerichtsverfahren und Strafrecht, 2 vols., Cologne, 1866; J. F. von Schulte, Ueber Kirchenstrafen, Berlin, 1872; F. Droste, Kirchliches Disziplinar und Kriminalverfahren gegen Geistliche, Paderborn, 1881; E. Katz, Grundriss des kanonischen Strafrechts, Berlin, 1881; Jura sacerdotum vindicata, New- York, 1883; P. Pievantonelli, Praxis fori ecclesiastici, Rome, 1883; P. Hinschius, Kirchenrecht . . in Deutschland, vols, iv.-vi., Berlin, 1886-97; A. Nissl, Der Gerichtsstand des Klerus im frankischen Reich, Innsbruck, 1886; A. L. Richter, Lehrbuch des . . Kirchenrechts, §§ 206-210, 212-226, Leipsic, 1886; R. Sohm, Geistliche Gerichtsbarkeit im frankischen Reich, in Zeitschrift fur Kirchenrecht, ix (1889), 193 sqq.; S. B. Smith, Elements of Ecclesiastical Law, 3 vols., New York, 1893; C. Gross, Lehrbuch des katholischen Kirchenrechts, Vienna, 1894;
E. Friedberg, Lehrbuch des . Kirchenrechts, 100, 101, 103-107, Leipsic, 1895; A. T. Wirgman, Constitutional Authority of the Bishops in the Catholic Church, New York, 1899; J. B. Saegmiiller, Lehrbuch des katholischen Kirchenrechts, Freiburg, 1900-04; W. von Brunneck, Beitrage zur Geschichte des Kirchenrechts in den deutschen Kolonisationslanden, 2 parts, Berlin, 1902-04.
For the German Evangelical Churches consult: O. Mejer, Kirchenzucht und Konsistorial-Kompetenz, Rostock, 1851; G. Galli, Die lutherischen und calvinistischen Kirchenstrafen gegen Laien im Reformationszeitalter, Breslau, 1879; A. L. Richter, ut sup., §§ 211, 227-231; R. Frank, Die neueren Disziplinargesetze der deutsch-evangelischen Landeskirchen, Marburg, 1890; E. Friedberg, ut sup., §§ 102, 108-109; K. Kohler, Lehrbuch des Kirchenrechts, pp. 194, 258, Berlin, 1895.
For Protestant Churches in Great Britain consult: J. Brownbill, Principles of English Canon Law, London; 1883; Constitution and Law of the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1884; Compendium of the Acts of General Assembly Relating to Procedure in Church Courts, ib. 1886; H. W. Cripps, Treatise on the Law Relating to the Church and Clergy, London, 1886; W. Mair, Digest of Laws Relating to the Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1887; F. H. L. Errington, Clergy Discipline Act, 1892, London, 1892; T. B. Hardern, Church Discipline, Cambridge, 1892; J. Chitty, Statutes Relating to Church and Clergy, London, 1894; R. J. Phillimore, Ecclesiastical Law of the Church of England, 2 vols., ib. 1895; F. W. Maitland, Roman Canon Law in the Church of England, Cambridge, 1898; H. Hardy, Ecclesiastical Proceedings under the Clergy Discipline Acts, London, 1899; H. Miller, A Guide to Ecclesiastical Law, London, 1899; J. H. Blunt, The Book of Church Law, ib. 1901; T. E. Smith, Summary of the Law and Practice in the Ecclesiastical Courts, ib. 1902; J. M. Duncan, The Parochial Ecclesiastical Law of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1903; W H. Frere, The Relation of Church and Parliament in Regard to Ecclesiastical Discipline, Oxford, 1903; P. V. Smith, The Law of Churchwardens and Sidesmen, London, 1903; idem, Legal Position of the Clergy, ib. 1905. For the United States: E. Buck, Ecclesiastical Law, Boston, n.d.; R. H. Tyler, American Ecclesiastical Law, Albany, 1866; M. Hoffman, Ecclesiastical Law in New York, New York, 1868; L. T. Townsend, Handbook upon Church Trials, ib. 1885; C. B. Howell, The Church and Civil Law, Detroit, 1886; S. B. Smith, ut sup.; also, New Procedure in Criminal and Disciplinary Causes of Ecclesiastics, New York, 1887; W. D. Wilson, American Church Law, ib. 1889; H. J. Desmond, The Church and the Law, Chicago, 1898; and the literature under Church Discipline.
JUSTICE, ETHICAL, AND EQUITY: Justice (in the ethical sense) in itself is the maintenance of positive legal order, assuring the peaceful and thriving existence of human society, the supreme political virtue — justitia regnorum fundamentum. Aristotle distinguishes justitia distributive! et correctiva. The first distributes riches, power, and honor according to desert; the other compensates
for inequalities and balances the loss and gain in the transactions of life. Justice provides the exact proportion of duties and rights, and punishes every violation of positive legal order. Justice establishes general lines of direction by laws, which prove themselves emanations of justice whenever they correspond to the original conception of right and reveal it in the decisions and ordinances based upon them.
Equity (Lat. aequitas, Gk. isotes) is to be associated with justice. What the latter establishes in a general way, sometimes appears insufficient when applied to the individual case — summum jus, summa injuria. What is just in general and what is individually just may diverge considerably. In such a case equity regards and vindicates rationality of natural right and corrects positive law in its too wide or too narrow comprehension.
Justice as a personal quality is the demeanor of man in accordance with the legal order, his rectitude. Its principle is exact compensation — suum cuique. Benevolence can not stand in its place. Rectitude obliges us to conscientious practising of the law, even when thereby evil may arise to our neighbor. It is wrong and contrary to our duty to spare him out of fear or weakness. In actual practise rectitude becomes probity or honesty.
Here also equity forms the morally indispensable complement of rectitude (Col. iv. 1). In our conduct toward our neighbor equity consists in yielding up and desisting from our just claims, where, relentlessly pursuing them, we should damage the neighbor in a degree detrimental to charity; and, on the other hand, in acknowledging and fulfilling claims of our neighbor on us which are not founded on strict legality, if they are of true profit to him and if we do not neglect other duties by complying with them. In the union of rectitude and equity alone true justice of moral conduct is achieved.
(Karl BurgerI.)
In theology justice has been given many significations. In the doctrine of the divine attributes it has been regarded as an inviolable characteristic of holiness, and as such has been set over against love as its opposite (see Holiness). It has, however, been most important in relation to theories of the atonement. On the one hand, justice has been defined as " general " or " rectoral " and " distributive," where " general " justice refers to the wellbeing and " distributive " to what is due the individual. In the atonement the latter was conceived as suspended in favor of the former (cf. E. A. Park, The Atonement, Discourses, etc., Boston, 1859). On the other hand, it has been maintained that justice (righteousness) must be satisfied before love could offer pardon to the sinner (see Satisfaction). The word has been employed also to designate the original state of man as one of integrity, obedience to God, and harmony of all personal powers. Moreover, it represents that renewed condition in which man as forgiven stands toward God and his law— a putative position to the unmerited favor of God. In its deepest sense justice and love in God are identical, while in man justice pertains to character and voluntary actions.