Which pope began the project that produced the 1917 Code of Canon Law?

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First Council of Nicaea — canon law Council of Nicaea in 325, depicted in a Byzantine fresco in the basilica of St. Nicholas in Demre, Turkey.

Pope Pius X initiated the project to produce the 1917 Code of Canon Law. On March 19, 1904, he announced his intention to codify the law and established a commission of 16 cardinals, serving as its chairman himself.1

Although the code was promulgated in 1917 under his successor, the foundational work and the commission were established by Pius X to address the unmanageable and uncertain state of canon law at the time.1