As matters now
stand, in consequence of the many and grave changes in human affairs and
in society, many laws have become useless, others difficult or
impossible to obey. With regard to a great number of canons, it is a
matter of dispute whether they are still in force or are abrogated.
Finally, in the course of so many centuries, the number of
ecclesiastical laws has increased to such an extent, and these laws have
accumulated in such immense collections, that in a certain sense we can
well say: We are crushed beneath the laws, _obruimur legibus_. Hence
arise infinite and inextricable difficulties which obstruct the study of
canon law; an immense field for controversy and litigation; a thousand
perplexities of conscience; and finally contempt for the laws."[36] We
know how the Vatican council had to separate without approaching the
question of canonical reform; but this general desire for a recasting of
the ecclesiastical code was taken up again on the initiative of Rome. On
the 19th of March 1904, Pius X. published a _Motu proprio, "de ecclesiae
legibus in unum redigendis_." After briefly reviewing the present
condition of the canonical texts and collections, he pointed out its
inconvenience, referred to the many requests from the episcopate, and
decreed the preparation of a general code of canon law. This immense
undertaking involved the codification of the entire canon law, drawing
it up in a clear, short and precise form, and introducing any expedient
modifications and reforms. For this purpose the pope appointed a
commission of cardinals, of which he himself became president; also a
commission of "consultors" resident at Rome, which asked for a certain
amount of assistance from canonists at various universities and
seminaries. Further, the assembled bishops of each province were invited
to give their opinion as to the points in which they considered the
canon law might profitably be modified or abrogated. Two consultors had
the duty of separately drawing up a preliminary plan for each title,
these projects being twice submitted for the deliberation of the
commission (or sub-commission) of consultors, the version adopted by
them being next submitted to the commission of cardinals, and the whole
finally sent up for the papal sanction. These commissions started work
at the end of 1904.

Local law.

_Local Law._--The common law of the Roman Church cannot by itself
uniformly regulate all the churches of the diffe