Definition
A Latin term from Roman law meaning to ordain or to decree. In its legal sense, *censere* denotes the act of formally declaring, ordering, or enacting — the authoritative expression of will by a body or officer competent to issue binding determinations. The term appears in Roman legal texts as a verb of command and institutional authority, most directly associated with the deliberative acts of the Roman Senate and the edicts of magistrates.
Why It Matters in Research
*Censere* is a term a researcher is far more likely to encounter in a secondary source explaining Roman law than in a primary legal instrument. It surfaces most often in treatises and commentaries that trace the origins of legislative or decree-based authority. The Digest citation shared across all three dictionary sources — Dig. 50, 16, 111 — places this term within the *de verborum significatione* title, the Roman law glossary on the meaning of words. That context is significant: the term appears there precisely because Roman jurists found it necessary to explain what *censere* meant as a technical act, distinct from mere opinion or deliberation.
Researchers working in civil law jurisdictions, canon law materials, or historical legal scholarship will encounter *censere* as a building block term — one whose precise meaning anchors interpretations of senatorial decrees (*senatus consulta*), census enactments, and magisterial orders. It should not be read loosely as "to think" or "to assess" in legal contexts, even though those meanings are available in classical Latin. In legal usage, *censere* carries the weight of an authoritative, binding pronouncement.
The term also appears in ecclesiastical and medieval legal writing, where Roman law vocabulary was absorbed into canon law. Researchers using pre-modern canon law sources should be alert to this usage.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three dictionary sources are in near-perfect agreement: Black's (1st ed.), Black's (2nd ed.), and Burrill all give the same core definition — "to ordain; to decree" — and all cite Dig. 50, 16, 111 as the source. The only minor variation is that Black's 1st ed. appears to have a typographical artifact ("dain" rather than "ordain"), suggesting a printing corruption in the original rather than a substantive difference.
The uniformity across sources reflects the narrow, technical nature of the term. None of the historical dictionaries elaborate on the broader range of classical Latin meanings, nor do they discuss the institutional context in which *censere* operated. This is a notable gap: the term in Roman practice was associated with the specific deliberative form of senatorial action — a *senatus consultum* was frequently expressed through the formula *censuerunt* (they decreed) — a dimension the dictionaries leave unaddressed. Researchers should supplement these brief entries with Roman law scholarship or a classical legal lexicon for fuller institutional context.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Roman Law; Senatus Consultum; De Verborum Significatione