Bishop Edmund Gibson's Codex iuris Ecclesiae Anglicanae first appeared in 1713 and soon established itself as a standard work on the subject of ecclesiastical law. His comments on the Reformatio thus acquired a semicanonical statos of their own, which lasted at least until Edward Cardwell produced a complete edition of the work in 1850. All Gibson's comments and quotations are reproduced below, for ease of reference, with the chapter and page of the Codex preceding the title and chapter of the Reformatio (R). The extracts are given in the order in which they appear in the Codex, with a reverse index appended at the end.

Preface (ix): For method's sake, the constituent parts of this work shall be first divided into several heads, and then each head shall be spoken to briefly, and as far only as is necessary by way of preface: viz. 1. Statutes, 2. Constitutions, 3. Canons, 4, Rubrics, 5. Articles, 6. Abridgment, 7. Commentary, 8. Rules of Common and Canon Law, 9. Appendix, 10. Index.

(xiv, under ‘Commentary’): The citations of ancient and modern councils and synods which have been held at home and abroad (as they are annexed here by way of commentary to our present laws) are designed to show, on one hand, that though many of the laws are modern, the constitution is ancient; and on the other hand to facilitate the improvement of this constitution by suggesting such useful rules of order and discipline as have been established abroad or attempted at home. With which last view it is that may of the passages out of the body of ecclesiastical laws entitled Reformatio legum etc. are grafted into this commentary as candidates for a place in our constitution in case the convocation shall think them deserving, or at least as not unworthy the consideration of that learned and venerable assembly.

I,4 (10-11). R, 48.1-2. Agreeably to this (i.e. X, 5.39.2) the Reformatio legum has fixed it: 1. Quicunque manus violentas in clericum sciens iniecerit, nisi voluerit arbitratu iudicum ecclesiasticorum ei satisfacere, paenitentiamque subire tam atroci scelere dignam, in excommunicationem ruet.