[Modus legendi abbreviaturas]

are tormented in the art of dialectics, etc.
As in the canon, Dist. xxxvij, where dialecticians and those inquiring into the nature of things are rebuked, as also are versifiers, and we read the same in that distinction. Where, through the vain garrulousness of dialecticians and sophistical arguments, he understands the Cyniphes gnats/mosquitoes and frogs with which the Egyptians were struck. First, I set forth the names of the books in both laws, as much pontifical as imperial. Attaching to each of these a division into partial books. Then I shall add the method of citing in any book with the placement of examples of abbreviations, so that the entrance to grasping the laws may be manifested, the ignorance of which excuses few, according to the rule. Ignorance of fact does not excuse, but ignorance of law does. As in de regulis iuris. c. ignorantia lib. vi. This rule has two main articles. First, that ignorance of fact excuses anyone, especially while it is a probable ignorance of fact. For then it fully excuses the ignorant, as in l. errore facti. C. de iuris et facti ig. For that which does not stand through me ought not be imputed to me, as in c. imputare de re. iur. li. vi. Second, the article is that ignorance of law excuses no one, because everyone is held to know the law, and it is permitted to no one to be ignorant of it, as in l. regula. ff. de iuris et fac. ig. We ought therefore to seek the knowledge of law, all of us, lest it happen that we fall into contempt of God. For contemners of the canons sin against the Holy Spirit, by whose instinct, sight, and grace the sacred canons themselves were edited, as in xxv. q. i. violatores and the chapter non nulli, etc. For which it should be known

that law is the art of the good and the fair, for which merit one calls us priests, as in l. i. sua iura cuilibet ministrantes. ff. de iusticia et iure. l. i. Law, however, is a general name, and a statute is a species of law. Also, law is called a precept or ordinance of a prince or lord regarding subjects. And thus law is distinguished into three parts because such a superior ruling power: Either it is God, and then it is called divine law. Or it is nature, and it is called primary natural law. Or it is man, then it is called human law, namely of nations or civil or positive. Natural law is common to every nation, for the reason that it is held everywhere by the instinct of nature, not by some constitution. As the union of male and female. The education of children. The common possession of all things. Because by natural law all things are common, to be communicated in time of necessity. For let no one say that is his own which is common, as in dist. viij. ca. hiis, to this one in the middle. And that law is most fair, because its precepts are contained in the law and in the gospel. As: what you wish to be done to you, do to me; what you do not want [done to you], do not [do to others]. Thus you can live on earth by the law of the city, as is said in the first