the following legislators: Jesus Christ, whom the Catholic Church believes to be her divine founder, is the original source of divine laws laid down chiefly in the Constitution of the Church, and next to Him the Apostles as lawgivers either of divine or human laws, viz.: as inspired or merely human instruments. The Roman Pontiff, either alone or in unison with a general council, as endowed with the supreme and ordinary power of enacting laws for the universal church. The Bishops for their respective particular churches, unless competency is reserved to another authority, such as the bishops' conference or the Holy See. Customs, too, must be considered as a source of law, universal as well as particular. Whether the natural law can be called a source of Canon Law depends on the formal declaration of the supreme authority and through determinationes; for the natural law as such — its extent is very uncertain — cannot be called a homogeneous source of Canon Law except it has been declared such by the highest authority. Besides its range being very uncertain, the rightfully called natural law is an objective sentiment, or a dictate of reason. Fontes cognoscendi The fontes cognoscendi (Latin: "sources of knowing") are depositaries in which we find collected the laws enacted in the course of centuries. They may also be considered as the channels through which the river and rivulets of legal enactment flow and are preserved. They do not constitute the law as such, but rather point out where it may be found. Among these sources are Holy Scripture and the decrees of popes and councils; also, in a measure, custom, inasmuch, namely, as it proves the existence and continuity of laws unwritten and perhaps forgotten. Jus vigens The term jus vigens (Latin: "living law") means all the currently-in-effect laws of the church, primarily the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, and Praedicate evangelium. In the apostolic constitution Sacri Canones, by means of which he promulgated the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, Pope John Paul II stated Other sources include apostolic constitutions, motibus propriis, and particular law. Codes of canon law Custom Custom in Catholic canon law is the repeated and constant performance of certain acts for a defined period of time, which, with the approval of the competent legislator, thereby acquire the force of law. A custom is,