EDICT

(Lat. edico, I speak out.) An instrument signed and sealed by a despotic prince to serve as a law to his subjects. In ancient Rome, the ordinances of the magistrates, but especially of the two praetors, pr<Etor urban us axiAprcetor peregrin us, were so called. Previously to the time of August us, the grapd principles of Roman law were exceedingly ambiguous and undefined; and to remedy this defect iii some measure, the praetors used to publish, on their acce ion to office, edicts or rules for regulating the practice of their courts, as well as for their own guidance in the decision of doubtful cases. A jurisdiction, however, thus vague and arbitrary in its nature being constantly abused, it was enacted by the Cornelian Law (b. c. 56), that the praetor of the year should be compelled to adhere to the spirit and letter of his first proclamation. The edicts of the preceding praetor were not binding on his succe or. If the latter confirmed them, they were styled edict a Vetera or tralatitia; in contradistinction to edict a nova, those framed by himself. {See Pr^tor.) Under the emperor Hadrian, a digest of the best decisions of the praetors from the earliest times was made by Sylvius Julian us, collected into a volume called Edictum Perpetuum, or Perpetual Edict, ratified by the emperor and senate, and fixed as the invariable standard of civil jurisprudence. The Edict qf Milan was a proclamation i ued by Const an tine after the conquest of Italy (a.d. 313), to secure to the Christians the restitution of their civil and religious rights, of which they had long been deprived, and to establish throughout his extended dominions the principles of a wise and enlightened toleration. The most famous edict of modern historj' is the Edict of Nantes, i ued by Henry IV. in 1598, to secure to the Protestants the free exercise of their religion. This act, after continuing in force nearly a ceixtury, was repealed [s. 396]