Canonical Collections

CANONICAL COLLECTIONS. - Compilations produced over the centuries, which contain part of the laws of the Church and constitute, in the language of canonists, some among the fontes cognoscendi iuris canonici.

A) WESTERN CANONICAL COLLECTIONS.

I. PREMISES

These sources are of various kinds: sources of divine law or of ecclesiastical law; genuine or spurious or apocryphal, chronological or systematic, authentic or public.

If one wishes to trace the logical genesis of the canonical collections, the first testimonies of canon law are found in the New Testament, especially of the constitutional law of the Church; then in the Apostolic Fathers; for the pre-Constantinian period, in the other Fathers of the Church of the 2nd and 3rd centuries and in the pseudo-apostolic writings.

The Constantinian peace opens a new era in the history of canon law: the bishops, helped and sometimes urged on by the emperor, can more easily and more frequently hold assemblies and take common decisions on various points of ecclesiastical discipline. Thus a written law is born, which replaces custom, which in the preceding period had been the principal factor of ecclesiastical discipline.

The Councils, from this epoch onward, are of various kinds and are celebrated in various places: there are four general Councils (Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon), but of these only two are of great importance for ecclesiastical discipline; there are then about twenty particular Councils: Eastern, African, Gallican, Spanish and Roman. Later the other two Ecumenical Councils of Constantinople, the second and the third, will have a certain influence on the Latin collections.

From the last part of the 4th century onward, the epistolary activity of the Roman pontiffs intensifies; with the Decretals the popes establish the principles of ecclesiastical organization; certain imperial constitutions fix the temporal status of clerics and of goods consecrated to worship.

The letters of the pontiffs will form part of the canonical collections from the 5th century onward, and, from then on, will ever more form a notable part of them.

In some Fathers, discipline finds its legislators, and doctrine reaches its greatest perfection, especially in St. Augustine.

Other supplementary and receptive sources of canon law are the Roman civil legislation in ecclesiastical matters and the law of the various barbarian states.

These elements, which work together, make it possible to obtain an ecclesiastical discipline with fairly uniform frameworks and clearly differentiated states.

To the ecclesiastical archives goes the merit of having preserved the canons and the decretals, which were notified to the various Churches through systems analogous to those of the imperial bureaucracy; the law that a Church knows and observes is first of all the law contained in its archives. When, later, compilers will feel the need to gather these elements into sylloges, they will be able easily to find them again in the archives of their own Churches.

Here a rapid synthesis of the Western canonical collections is given. For the Eastern ones, v. below: c.c. ORIENTALI. But it must immediately be noted that the first Western canonical collections arose through the influence and in imitation of the collections of the East. A syntagma canonum, whose complex history is variously set forth by scholars, was already circulating in the East after the celebration of the Council of Chalcedon of 451, and comprised the canons of Ancyra (314), Neocaesarea (314-25), Nicaea (325), Gangra (341-42), Antioch, Laodicea (348-380), Constantinople (380), Chalcedon (451). The Latin canonical collections have an uninterrupted life from the second half of the 5th century onward; the oldest known ones arise in Africa, but it is at Rome that a canonistic activity begins, unofficial, it is true, but precious for the later development of canon law.

The epochs of the canonical collections are commonly divided into four periods.

First period, studied principally and radically by Maassen: it goes from the epoch of Dionysius Exiguus to the pseudo-Isidorian Decretals. It is the epoch of the elaboration of the canon law of the West, which is integrated to the greatest extent with regional elements, is updated according to the arising of the various situations and needs of ecclesiastical discipline, and is not yet contaminated by the imposing literary falsification that will be the characteristic of the following period.

Second period, of the pseudo-Isidorians and of the canonical collections that preceded, carried out and followed the reform of Gregory VII.

Third period, of the classic and fundamental canonical collections that gave life to the Corpus Iuris Canonici.

Fourth period, which starts from the Council of Trent, documents the activity of the Roman Congregations, and is characterized by new types of collections: the Acts of the Pontiffs, of the Councils and the various collections of Acts or Decisions of the Holy See.

According to Maassen's system of exposition, the canonical collections are divided into general, special and systematic; we do not follow the geographical criterion, often uncertain.

General are the canonical collections that have a common foundation, constituted by the ecumenical Councils and by the topic councils of the East; to these councils are sometimes added, in chronological order, the canons of the Councils of Africa, of Spain and of Gaul, and pontifical decretals. It will be these differences that will give individuality to each canonical collection.

Sometimes, and always after the rise of the chronological canonical collections, the aforesaid material is ordered systematically, or from it only particular elements of law are gathered, or only canons of one of the many councils celebrated here and there in Christendom, in these centuries and in the earlier ones. Thus arise the systematic canonical collections in the first case, and the special ones in the second.

II. GENERAL CANONICAL COLLECTIONS

Besides the Dionysian collections (v. DIONYSIUS EXIGUUS), the following are remembered:

1. Collectio ms. Frisingensis: common stock; Isidorian version of the Greek canons, a good number of decretals of the Dionysiana from Damasus (366) to Gelasius (496), acts of the cause of Acacius; probably Italian, from the end of the 5th century and the beginning of the 6th.

Alongside this canonical collection, a Coll. Weingartensis is also noted.

2. Collectio Quesnelliana, similar to the Frisingensis but with the addition of the canons of Chalcedon and a great number of documents relating to the dogmatic conflicts of the 4th and 5th centuries. Its place of origin has been the subject of controversy: Rome according to Quesnel (v.), Gaul according to the Ballerini and Maassen; again in favor of Rome, or at least of Italy, are Duchesne and P. Fournier.

3. Four Italian canonical collections of the 6th century: Coll. ms. s. Blasii, Coll. ms. Vaticani, Coll. ms. Theatini, Coll. ms. Iustelli; common stock, prisca version, debate of the first session of the Council of Carthage of 419; Italian, of the 6th century.

4. Coll. ms. Colbert, of uncertain date, originating from Gaul, partly akin to the Quesnelliana and partly to the s. Blasii.

5. Three canonical collections of the Greek and African councils: Coll. ms. Parisiensis, Coll. Theodosii diaconi, Coll. ms. Wirceburgensis.

6. General canonical collections with Gallican councils. From the 6th century onward, almost every diocese had a general canonical collection, a Liber canonum; these collections were made so that dioceses would have at hand the norms of law to be applied; several of them survive, composed in Gaul; they are: Coll. ms. Corbeiensis, Coloniensis, Laureshamensis (Lorsch), Albigensis, Pithouensis, Bigotiana, s. Mauri, Diessensis, Burgundiae, Remensis.

7. Finally there are the general canonical collections of Spain. Chronologically the first is the Epitome Hispanica, later than 598, which contains, in summary, the same material as the following canonical collections.

Collectio Hispana chronologica, or Isidoriana: it contains in chronological order, for the most part according to the Dionysian version, the Greek, African, Gallic and Spanish councils and the decretals of the Roman Pontiffs.

The redaction of the Hispana underwent various changes over the course of time, so that the various manuscripts present two different redactions of the same canonical collections.

The Hispana has always been attributed to Spain, but there is a passionate debate among scholars as to whether it arose in the milieu of the Church of Arles, as Tarrè thinks together with Duchesne, who therefore propose to call it Collectio Arelatensis-visigothica. Some hold that its author is St. Isidore of Seville (v.); according to a sound hypothesis, it was composed around the time of the Council of Toledo IV of 633.

8. The Coll. ms. Novariensis is the last general canonical collection.

III. SPECIAL CANONICAL COLLECTIONS

First of all, a series of canonical collections of the acts of the Greek Councils:

Canonical collections concerning the ecumenical Council of Ephesus: Coll. ms. Turonensis, Coll. ms. Veronensis, Coll. ms. Salisburgensis, Synodicon Casinense; canonical collections concerning the ecumenical Council of Chalcedon: Coll. ms. Vaticani 1322, Coll. ms. Nostrae Dominae, Coll. Rustici (of Rusticus, Roman deacon, nephew of Pope Vigilius); Codex encyclicus; canonical collections of the acts of the Fifth Ecumenical Council, Second of Constantinople; the canonical collection was composed before 590; canonical collections of the acts of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, Third of Constantinople; Coll. temporis Sergii I, Coll. ms. Claromontani.

Fragmentum Veronense, it refers above all to the heresies of the 4th and 5th centuries.

Canonical collections relating to the affair of Acacius: Coll. ms. Veronensis, Coll. ms. Virodunensis.

Canonical collections concerning the Donatist controversy.
Canonical collections of the Churches of Thessalonica and of Arles: Collectio

Ecclesiae Thessalonicensis, concerns the affair of the metropolitan of Thessaly, Stephen of Larissa; it was made in 531 before the Collectio Ecclesiae Arelatensis of the end of the 6th century.

Canonical collections of the African Councils: Coll. Concilii Carthaginiensis 419; Coll. Concilii Carthaginiensis 526; Collectio Conc. africanorum in the Hispana: it is a special canonical collection of African canons; written in the Hispana; of uncertain homeland and unknown author.

Canonical collections of Gallic and German Councils: Coll. ms. Lugdunensis, Coll. Concilii a. 813 with the canons of the five reforming Councils of Arles, Reims, Mainz, Tours, Chalon-sur-Saône. Coll. ms. Bellovacensis, a canonical collection of intermediate time because it seems to belong in part to this period; it goes beyond it for other documents. Coll. ms. s. Amandi, contains the canons of the Spanish Councils joined to other Gallic Councils.

Canonical collections of the Councils of Ireland and Great Britain: Coll. ms. Fécamp, which contains Irish, Breton, Anglo-Saxon penitential canons, extracts from the Holy Books and the Fathers; the other matters were perhaps added in Gaul. Coll. ms. Sangermanensis has many contacts with the preceding one.

Collectio Avellana (v. AVELLANA).

Collectio Conc. Romani of 649, by Martin I against Monophysitism and many letters of this pope.

Constitutiones Sirmondianae, contains eighteen imperial constitutions on ecclesiastical matters, from 321 to 425, perhaps later than 581; it is of Gallican origin.

Collectio ms. Mutinensis, is later than 601 and probably composed in Italy; it has canons and decretals.

IV. SYSTEMATIC CANONICAL COLLECTIONS

The oldest systematic canonical collection is of African origin: the Breviatio canonum Fulgentii Ferrandi (v. FULGENTIUS).

Capitula Martini, the work of Martin of Braga, who, in order to correct what was obscure in the collection of Greek canons, classifies everything that relates to the clergy and everything that concerns the laity; it enjoyed a wide diffusion.

Concordia canonum Cresconii, by a Cresconius, perhaps a bishop and poet. It gathers the whole body of canonical prescriptions into a concordance, with the aim of making them more intelligible by means of rubrics. It draws on the Dionysian canonical collections. It is later than Ferrandus's Breviatio and was widely used.

Collectio Hispana systematica. It uses almost exclusively the Hispana chronologica. It is of Spanish origin, later than the Concordia of Cresconius.

Among the systematic canonical collections one must recall a series of Gallican canonical collections, namely:

Coll. ms. Andegavensis, Coll. Herovalliana, I Coll. Bonaevalis, Coll. ms. Sangermanensis, II Coll. Bonaevalis, Coll. in 400 capitula, Cresconius Gallicus, Coll. Dacheriana, Coll. in quatuor libros, Coll. Halitgarii Cameracensis, Coll. ms. Bibl. Vallicellianae, Poenitentialia Rhabani Mauri.

Of these, the Dacheriana and the two Penitentials deserve special mention.

The Dacheriana gives canons of all the Councils up to that of Constantinople, according to the Dionysio-hadriana, and decretals of all the Popes, with the exception of Felix III and Hormisdas.

The Poenitentialia Rhabani Mauri are two canonical collections related through their sources to some of the canonical collections previously described. Of these penitentials the older was composed around 841; the other is of 853 (v. PENITENTIALS, BOOKS).

Other special small canonical collections are noted in the work of Maassen.

Collectio Hibernica. The Irish canonical collection is among the most notable systematic canonical collections of this period; it has a certain importance especially with regard to the patristic material of which it makes use, but it is especially interesting for Ibernic law.

Coll. IX librorum, of the beginning of the 9th century, has points of contact with the Irish canonical collection.

To the systematic canonical collections one must join the well-known collections of Roman law for the use of the clergy, such as the Lex Romana canonice compta (v.), the Excerpta Bobiensia (v.) and an extract from a manuscript of Haenel.

The last canonical collections of this period were composed during a grave crisis that the Merovingian Church passed through between 680 and 740: contempt for the ancient law, the deplorable situation of the episcopal sees, members of the clergy recruited without observance of the canonical rules, and the consequent relaxation of morals in the heads and in the members. The Carolingian reform will seek to remedy this state of affairs, will reorganize the hierarchy, will re-establish discipline in the clergy, and ecclesiastical property will be protected in its sacred purposes.

The culminating phase of this reform activity is the delivery of the Dionysio-hadriana to Charlemagne in 774; the Dionysio-hadriana spread rapidly; councils and capitularies appealed to it when they wished to restore the ancient law. The Hispana, enriched with the Councils of Spain, somewhat modified by various Frankish reworkings, will also support the reform, and in 810 will be merged with the Dionysio-hadriana.

The Dacheriana crowns the effort of the Carolingian reform for the restoration, coordination and classification of texts; it is the principal source of the canonical collections of the first half of the 9th century and its influence will extend until the Gregorian reform.

To supply the lack of local elements that existed in the great canonical collections restored to honor (the Hispana, the Dionysio-hadriana, the Dacheriana) and their scant practicality, the bishops composed specialized canonical collections, the Capitularia, which contain, extracted from the great collections, the essential rules of parish administration: thus we have the Capitularies of Theodulf of Orléans, of Aton bishop of Basel, of Gerbald bishop of Liège, of a bishop of Freising, two anonymous Capitularies composed between 825 and 850 and between 850 and 875; the Capitula of Hincmar of Reims and of Rodulf of Bourges.

The political and scientific renaissance of the empire gives a new importance to Roman imperial legislation: the Church should have made use of the rules established to its advantage by the Christian princes and gathered in the Justinianic compilations; a great compilation of Roman law for the use of the clergy was formed in the first quarter of the 9th century in Italy: the Lex romana canonice compta; it carries the principal Roman constitutions relating to ecclesiastical organization.

V. THE SOURCES OF CANON LAW FROM PSEUDO-ISIDORE TO GRATIAN

A new period in the history of the canonical collections opens in the second half of the 9th century. It corresponds to a grave situation of the Frankish Church, victim of the greed of the lay aristocracy, which arbitrarily deposes bishops and usurps their sees, placing in them instruments docile to its own interests. The very life of the Church was as it were beset and stifled by such a state of affairs. For fifty years a reform had been invoked in vain. When the last attempt failed at Epernay in 847, some thought to present the reform as having been planned long before: to this end they fabricated, in support of their thesis, numerous apocrypha from which, mixed with genuine texts, the pseudo-Isidorian collections were born: Hispana augustodunensis, Capitula Angilramni, Capitularia Benedicti Levitae, Decretales pseudo-isidorianae (v. ANGILRAMNO; BENEDETTO LEVITA; ISIDORO di SIVIGLIA).

The distinctive character of the second part of this period is the relation that the canonical collections have with the reform of the Church promoted by Gregory VII: the canonical collections drawn up in support of the struggle engaged in by the Pontiff are against it; two other groups of canonical collections, called pre-Gregorian and post-Gregorian, precede and follow it.

They are all systematic canonical collections and contain canons of councils, decretals of the Roman Pontiffs, civil laws of the Romans or of the Franks, and writings of the holy Fathers.

1. Pre-Gregorian canonical collections: Collectio Anselmo dedicata, by an unknown author, composed in northern Italy around 882 and dedicated to Anselm, archbishop of Milan (v.); of good Roman spirit, it shows the influence of Pseudo-Isidore, of the Dionysio-hadriana, of the letters of St. Gregory the Great, of the Novariensis and of the Lex Romana canonice compta.

Regionis Prumiensis libri duo de synodalibus causis et disciplinis ecclesiasticis, they report the rules to be observed in instituting canonical proceedings during the visitation of dioceses; composed in 905 (v. REGINONE di PRÜMM).

Collectio Abbonis abbatis Floriacensis, composed in defense of monastic exemption by the abbot of Fleury between 958 and 976; notable for the distinction and discussion on the sources of law.

Collectio quinque librorum Codicis Vaticanis, written, at the beginning of the 11th century, in support of the reform of Benedict VIII.

After this canonical collection, P. Fournier-G. Le Bras point out other minor canonical collections which they call cisalpine and transalpine. There are still notably:

Decretum Burchardi Wormatiensis (v. BURCARDO di WORMS), composed around 1012 by Burchard, of the diocese of Mainz, who later became bishop of Worms; it supports the reform of the Church.

P. Fournier and G. Le Bras point out various other minor canonical collections from the end of the 9th century to the beginning of the 11th, which they classify as follows: Germanic, Western, Italian.

2. Gregorian canonical collections

The support given to the reform by these canonical collections has two directives: to gather only the documents of the Roman Pontiffs, to reject corrupt customs.

Collectio septuaginta quatuor titulorum or Diversorum sententiae patrum, composed in Rome in 1050 by an unknown author in defense of the primacy, of monastic exemption, and for the protection of the rules on the appointment of bishops.

Capitulare cardinalis Attonis, bishop of Milan, written at the end of the pontificate of Alexander II or at the beginning of that of Gregory VII.

Collectio Anselmi Lucensis, has varied material, both original and interpolated; from it the polemicists drew in defense of the reform of Gregory VII; composed around 1083 by Anselm, bishop of Lucca (v.).

Collectio cardinalis Deusdedit, sets out the disciplines of the Roman clergy; composed between 1083 and 1087.

They underwent the Gregorian influence:

Liber de vita christiana, by Bonizo, bishop of Sutri, later promoted to Piacenza; composed between 1089 and 1093. Collectio Britannica, so called because it is preserved in a codex of the British Museum, of special importance for the pontifical letters; composed in Italy at the beginning of the 12th century.

Polycarpus, composed by Card. Gregory, under Paschal II (1110-18); it favors the Gregorian reform, but is also influenced by Burchard.

Various other minor canonical collections are pointed out especially by P. Fournier-G. Le Bras; the same authors point out other small canonical collections that did not undergo the Gregorian influence.

3. Post-Gregorian canonical collections

Canonical collections of Gaul from the end of the 11th century: The three canonical collections of Ivo of Chartres (v.).

Canonical collections that underwent the influence of Ivo: Collectio Caesarungustana, from a codex of Saragossa, composed in Burgundy or Aquitaine in the first decade of the 12th century (it depends on Ivo, favors the Gregorian reform); and other minor ones pointed out by P. Fournier-G. Le Bras.

Collectio Algeri Leodiensis or Liber de misericordia et iustitia of Alger of Liège (v.); other minor canonical collections, again pointed out by P. Fournier-G. Le Bras.

VI. THE GREAT COLLECTIONS OF THE 12TH-14TH CENTURIES

The period that follows is the period of the Decretum of Gratian (v.), of the Compilationes quinque antiquae (v.) and of the other collections that would form the Corpus Iuris Canonici (v.), and it fits into that period of literary rebirth in ecclesiastical matters which saw the flourishing and the birth of the science of canon law, which from then on develops with a life of its own and becomes an organic system. It is the age of the great canonical collections, and many of them deserve and have in this encyclopedia a separate treatment.

Among such a profusion of works, a place is found by a series of small canonical collections which we mention here, earlier than the Compilatio I: an Appendices Concilii Lateranensis, which contains, together with the canons of the Lateran Council (1179), decretals and canons, among them those of the Council of Tours of 1163.

This collection was imitated by others less well known, such as the Bambersensis, Lipsiensis and Castelana collections. These collections, the object of study by able modern researchers, are usually distinguished into: non-systematic collections earlier than the I Compilatio; systematic collections earlier than the I Compilatio; systematic collections later than the I Compilatio.

Their authors and their country of origin are unknown; their time of composition is deduced from intrinsic elements; they are designated by the name of the library in which their manuscripts are preserved; their importance lies in the preservation of texts of decretals that would otherwise not be better known or not known at all; they have all been masterfully reviewed by Kuttner.

With the Corpus Iuris Canonici the age of the collections comes to a close. With the celebration of the Council of Trent and with the reorganization of the Roman Curia carried out by Sixtus V, the universal law issued by the Pope or, by his order, by the Roman dicasteries, would be gathered into compilations that do not have the form of the old collections: from then on there would be the Bullaria, the Acts of the Roman Pontiffs, the Acts of the various Congregations, offices and tribunals, even though no unification and simplification, even formal, of the law would be reached with the CIC.

Giuseppe D'Ercole

B) ORIENTAL COLLECTIONS.

I. COLLECTIONS OF THE BYZANTINE RITE

1. Greek (Byzantine) collections

a) The primitive canonical collection. At the beginning of its existence the Church did not possess a complete system of norms and rules, but, apart from a certain number of fundamental principles and particular precepts contained in the books of the New Testament or in oral tradition, it had to create its own law. In this process the particular Churches, in the first centuries, enjoyed a very broad autonomy, although the influence of the mother-Churches and that of the more important cities made itself felt even in that era.

More than legislation, custom and usage prevailed. The desire to fix these customary or traditional norms and to give them a higher authority led to the composition of the pseudo-apostolic writings and orders, of which such a considerable number is found in the early Christian centuries.

With the rise of heresies and the growth in the number of the faithful, the need for a greater determination and a greater uniformity became ever more pressing. In the second half of the 2nd century synods of bishops began to be convoked. In the 3rd century these synods regulated disciplinary questions alongside questions of faith and doctrine. Especially in the second part of this century a penitential discipline arose in this way, of which an echo is still found in later canons. The 4th century took a further step in that the authority of the canons of the ecumenical Councils was no longer dependent on free acceptance, but bound all bishops and faithful without further ado.

The canons of councils do not treat a subject systematically. They respond to questions of the moment, they resolve the difficulties of the moment proposed by the bishops to the synod. They therefore present themselves as incomplete, and soon the tendency is noted to gather the various groups of canons together. In the East few traces of such attempts have survived. Perhaps because a collection of canons soon prevailed and supplanted all the other collections. Already the Fathers of the Council of Chalcedon had in their hands a collection which comprised in the first place the canons of Nicaea (325), followed by those of the Synods of Ancyra (314), Neocaesarea (314-320), Antioch (328-32), but falsely attributed since antiquity to the council in Encaeniis of 341), Gangra (342) and Laodicea (347-78), all with continuous numbering. The canons of the Council of Constantinople (381) formed a kind of appendix. These, together with the canons of Chalcedon (451), before the end of the 5th century also entered the collection, at the beginning of which were placed the 85 so-called apostolic canons (composed ca. 360-80).

The origins of this collection are still obscure. According to the most common opinion a first nucleus would have been formed at the beginning of the 4th century, consisting of 24 canons of the Council of Ancyra (the last 10 in reality belong to a Council of Caesarea, as Lebon has lucidly proved, Le muséon, 51 [1938], pp. 89-132) and of 14 canons of the Council of Neocaesarea. Soon the 20 canons of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea were added, to which the first place was given by reason of its authority, as is expressly declared in an added note. To this first nucleus there then acceded the canons of the three Councils of Antioch, Gangra and Laodicea.

More recently, however, Ed. Schwartz has proposed a new explanation. According to him the Corpus canonum would be the work of the "Homoean" Arians who in fact directed the Church during the years 360-78. With the same intentions with which they produced a vast pseudo-apostolic literature (the apostolic constitutions, the canons of the Apostles, the false Ignatian writings, etc.) they would have composed the collection of canons, that is, in order to give more authority to the Church of Antioch. Guided by this criterion they chose the Councils: those of Antioch (attributing the canons to the famous Arian Council of 341), of Gangra, of Ancyra and of Neocaesarea in which the bishops of Antioch had held the presidency, and the Council held by anti-Nicene bishops at Laodicea. Only after their fall would the orthodox have adopted the collection, adding to it in the first place the canons of the Council of Nicaea. A brilliant and probable conception, of which it is however prudent to await further confirmation.

At the beginning of the 6th century the collection appears enriched further by a certain number of canons of the Council of Ephesus and by the canons of Sardica, sometimes inserted after the Council of Gangra, sometimes and for the most part added at the end of the councils. Thus a collection of canons of 10 synods, 4 ecumenical and 6 local, preceded by the canons of the Holy Apostles, had been formed.

b) The Synagoge of 50 titles. The primitive collection, arranged according to the "chronological" criterion, was difficult to consult. Therefore already ca. 535 an author unknown to us composed a "systematic" collection in 60 titles. A collection of extracts of the civil laws referring to ecclesiastical matters (Collectio XXI capitulorum) seems to have formed its appendix. This work is known only from the allusion made to it by John Scholasticus, later patriarch of Constantinople, who, while still a layman and a lawyer (scholastikós), composed around 550 a collection in 50 titles, dividing among these titles (rubrics) the canons or even passages of them according to subject matter. The Synagogé contains the 85 canons of the Apostles, those of the 10 synods and also the canons of the 2nd and 3rd canonical letter of St. Basil. Collections of canons and of sayings of the Holy Fathers were already in circulation, but John Scholasticus was the first to introduce them into the collections of canons, thus preparing the way for them to acquire an authority that they did not have of themselves.

With the Synagogé the Collectio LXXXVII capitulorum is often joined, sometimes augmented by the Collectio XXV capitulorum, that is, by the Collectio XXI capitulorum, enriched by 4 chapters that contain Novels. Beneševíć thinks that the author of the collection and of its addition to the Synagogé was John Scholasticus himself. Later the Synagogé was transformed into a Nomocanon: under the individual titles were placed the texts taken both from the Collectio LXXXVII capitulorum and from other sources of civil law. But this happened probably after the death of the patriarch.

c) The Syntagma of XIV titles. The method used by John Scholasticus was perfected by the author of another canonical collection, written shortly afterward (around 580). The work is divided into two parts: the first comprises 14 titles, subdivided into 329 chapters, in which the text of the canons itself is not placed, but only a cross-reference. The second part contains the "chronological" collection of the canons. In this way it was possible not only to specify the subject matter much more, but also to cite the canons as many times as one pleased, without encumbering the text. Moreover, new sources were received into the collection, especially the canons of the Council of Constantinople (394) and that of Carthage (419) and of twelve Holy Fathers, among them St. Basil with all three canonical letters. The author added at the end a collection of the civil laws concerning ecclesiastical matters, the so-called Collectio constitutionum ecclesiasticarum (also called Collectio tripartita or Paratitla). Nothing precise is known about the author.

In the year 629 or 630 the work underwent an important transformation (see tit. IX, ch. 1). A legal expert, living, it seems, at Constantinople, identified by what is said in tit. N, ch. 10 with the so-called Enantiophanes, an author known in Byzantine law, turned the Syntagma into a Nomocanon, placing brief extracts or epitomized texts of the civil laws (derived, however, not from the Collectio tripartita, but from other collections) under the respective chapters of the first part of the collection. He further added to the nomocanon four Novels of Heraclius and the canons of St. Gregory of Nazianzus and of St. Athanasius.

Subsequently both the Syntagma and the Nomocanon of XIV titles were often transcribed, whether integrally or in their separate parts, in various ways augmented, transformed, etc. The fathers of the Council in Trullo (691-92), in establishing the 2nd canon, had in their hands a collection that corresponded to the second, "chronological," part, already augmented, of the Syntagma. In 883, under the patriarchate of Photius, a second recension of the Nomocanon was made, which, however, limited itself to adding the councils held in the meantime. The question whether the patriarch himself took part in this work or not is debated. In any case the Nomocanon soon began to circulate under his name. A third edition, which, however, did not have much diffusion, was made by Theodore Bestes in 1090, by order of the logothete Michael, and had the purpose of indicating everywhere the place in the Basilica that corresponded to the Justinian citation of the sources of law. The Council of Union of 920 recognized the Nomocanon as having official authority. Even more important became the fact that the great Byzantine commentators wrote their commentaries on the Nomocanon, Zonaras on its "chronological" part, Balsamon on both parts. Today the Nomocanon of XIV titles is the most authoritative collection of Byzantine ecclesiastical law and is considered as such by all the dissident Churches of the Byzantine rite.

d) The Synopsis sacrorum canonum. Alongside the great collections of canons there arose in the 6th century a collection with the abridged text of the canons, which comprised, besides the apostolic canons, those of the 10 synods, the canons of the Council of Carthage and the three canonical letters of St. Basil. In the manuscripts it is ascribed to various authors, Stephen of Ephesus (6th century), Symeon the logothete (10th century), Alexius Aristenus, of whom the first was probably the author of the work, the others the authors of new recensions. Aristenus wrote on the Synopsis a commentary much esteemed for its clarity and concision. It had wide diffusion also beyond the borders of the Byzantine Empire.

e) The Σύνταγμα κατά στοιχείον (Syntagma alphabeticum). The Nomocanon of XIV titles with the commentaries of Zonaras and Balsamon was addressed to persons of a certain ecclesiastical culture. In the last times of the empire, when along with political power the level of education had fallen, a manual of law that was clear, brief and easy to consult was wanted for the clergy. Such a book was written in 1335 by the hieromonk Matthew Blastares, residing, it seems, at Thessalonica. The work is divided, according to the number of letters of the Greek alphabet, into 24 parts, subdivided into 303 chapters; the subject matters are arranged alphabetically.

Besides the canons of the councils and of the Holy Fathers, and some citation of Zonaras and Balsamon, it also contains the provisions of profane law in the civil matters that may most interest a cleric, an addition that gave it a particular value. All this is reported in abridged form and, ordinarily, without detailed indication of the source. How much favor, however, the book encountered is shown by the fact that it was translated into many languages, modern Greek, Slavonic, Serbian, Russian, etc.

f) The Nomocanon of Manuel Malaxos. This book already brings us into the time of Turkish domination. Malaxos, notary of the metropolitan of Thebes, wrote his book at Nauplia in 1561. To the first edition in the literary language, of which three copies survive today, he had a version in the modern Greek language follow (1562-63), of which more than 300 manuscripts are known today, to which many others will have to be added. The first edition seems to have had 580 canons; the number of the canons of the second varies between 203 and 694, a variety due without doubt to the copyists of the work. It is not the intrinsic value of the collection — alongside the canons there are also notices concerning geography, meteorology and philosophy — but its accessibility to all that explains its great diffusion.

g) The Πηδάλιον. To supply the needs of the Church of their time, the two Athonite monks Nicodemus and Agapius at the end of the 18th century composed a manual of the canons, accompanying them with a commentary, a "concordance" of the canons and with notes. The book was printed in 1800 at Leipzig. In the patriarchate of Constantinople and in Greece it had official authority. It was reprinted several times and in 1844 also in the Romanian language at the monastery of Neamț.

h) Other canonical collections. A Synopsis canonum, a work of no great merit, had the undue honor of being printed twice; its author, a monk of Mount Athos by the name of Arsenius, has been identified without reason with the patriarch of the same name (1254-61, 1261-64). More complete, though a brief and simple work, is the Ἐπιτομή τῶν θείων καὶ ἱερῶν κανόνων of the judge of Thessalonica Constantine Harmenopoulos, a well-known author of the Hexabiblos or Πρόχειρον τῶν νόμων (1335). It treats in six books successively of bishops, of priests, of deacons and subdeacons, of the lower clergy, of monks and monasteries, of laymen and of women.

Under Turkish rule, in 1645, the collection entitled Ἡ Βακτηρία τῶν ἀρχιερέων (The Staff of the Bishops) was composed by the archimandrite James of Ioannina at the mandate of the patriarch Parthenius. The author, following Blastares in the arrangement of the work, greatly surpasses him in its vastness: it contains 1274 chapters. It was used in the Balkans and especially among the Romanians after a version in their language had been made of it in 1754. It was never printed.

Still other collections would have to be mentioned, whether printed, such as the Κανονικόν of the monk Christopher (Constantinople 1800), or preserved in archives; but they did not exercise a lasting influence.

2. Melchite canonical collections

The legal history of the three "Eastern" patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem has been little explored. There is no doubt that the canons of the ecumenical and local councils were known and applied there, but reliable data are lacking as to whether or not certain collections were received.

Only later, according to recent research, does a collection proper to the Melchites appear, which in manuscripts from the 12th to the 18th century displays characteristics that distinguish it as a whole from the others; the canons of the Council of Nicaea are placed after those of Ancyra and Neocaesarea, the Arabic Pseudo-Nicene canons are added, the spiritual canons, the canons of Epiphanius, the apocryphal canons of Basil, the second series of the canons of the Second Council of Nicaea (that is, in fact, the Collectio LXXXVII capitulorum), the Prócheiros Nómos, etc. There are connections with the Chaldean and Coptic collections, but these have not been sufficiently explored to allow a sure judgment.

3. Bulgarian and Serbian collections

During the early times after the conversion of the country, the Bulgarian Church displayed a very lively activity in the field of translating Greek ecclesiastical books into the Church Slavonic language, pursuing the impulse given by the disciples of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Many of these translations found their way to Russia, where they facilitated the task of founding a Church of the Slavic rite. Nothing, however, is known of Bulgarian versions of the more important works of canon law. Later the Bulgarians, according to circumstances and times, made use of Greek works or of the translations and editions made by their neighbors.

The Serbs too referred at first to Byzantine writings. But at the beginning of the 13th century Sava, later founder of the autocephalous Serbian Church and its first archbishop, during his stay in the monastery of Chilandar on Mount Athos, oversaw the compilation of a new canonical collection in the Slavic language, the so-called Kormčaja Kniga, which received not the integral text of the canons, but the epitomized text of the Synopsis canonum, together, for the most part, with the commentary of Aristenos, and furthermore many documents of later Byzantine legislation, synodal decrees of the patriarchs of Constantinople, Novels of Alexius I Comnenus, replies of bishops or other experts in canon law, etc. Seven manuscripts of this work, with various recensions, are still preserved today.

No less important for practice became the version in the Slavic language of the alphabetical Syntagma of Matthew Blastares, made before the end of the 14th century. In recent times the Serbian Church has also made use of the Russian and Greek editions of the canons.

4. Russian collections

Already in the 11th and 12th centuries the principal canonical collections translated into the Church Slavonic language circulated in Russia, especially the Synagogé of 50 titles (in the version probably made by St. Methodius himself), and the Syntagma of XIV titles. In time, especially the latter, was enlarged by many other documents, ecclesiastical ordinances, short treatises, replies of metropolitans, statutes of princes, etc., of Russian origin. On the other hand, the metropolitan Cyril II obtained in 1270 (1262?) from the Bulgarian despotate James Svjatoslav the Serbian Kormčaja Kniga, which was read and recommended in the Synod of Vladimir (1274).

Thus two families of manuscripts of the Kormčaja Kniga were formed, one with the integral text of the canons and additions of Russian origin, the other with the epitomized text with Byzantine sources. When, by reason of the innumerable divergences and the grave corruptions that had gradually disfigured the text, a reform became imperative toward the middle of the 17th century, the tendency then dominant in Russia and in the Russian Church, which sought a rapprochement with the customs of the Greek Church, decided for the printing of the Serbian Kormčaja. It was given to the press, with changes of only secondary importance, in 1650 by the patriarch Joseph. But scarcely was the work finished when Joseph died, and his successor Nikon, a religious and pious man, but authoritarian, having withdrawn the copies already distributed, under the pretext of wishing to correct the inaccuracies, published in 1653 another edition, in which the changes are few, concerning especially the treatises placed at the beginning and at the end of the work. The 70 chapters contained almost exclusively documents of Byzantine provenance. Alongside the canons of the councils in the text of the Synopsis, of the 14 titles, of replies of bishops, etc., there are also found the Donatio Constantini — as proof of the superiority of the Church over the State — Byzantine codes such as the Ecloga of the Isaurian emperors, the Prócheiros Nómos of Basil I, novels, polemical treatises against the Latins, in chapter 50 an instruction on marriage, in which an extract of the Rituale Romanum of Paul V has also found a place.

The Kormčaja Kniga remained the official book of law also in the following centuries (the "Old Believers," on the other hand, clung to the Kormčaja of Joseph, of which they secretly made new editions). With the progress, however, of Russian ecclesiastical culture its deficiencies became apparent, and therefore the Holy Synod, in 1839, procured the edition in the Slavic language of the complete text of the canons, the Kniga pravil. From that time the practical authority of the Kormčaja Kniga has greatly diminished.

5. Romanian collections

After the formation of the two Danubian principalities, the Romanian Church remained for a long time still under the influence both of the Byzantines and of the Serbs. The Slavic version of the Syntagma alphabeticum of Blastares was particularly used and esteemed. From the second part of the 16th century the Romanians, at first in Transylvania (through the work of the deacon Coresi), then also in the principalities, began to publish some minor work of a penitential character. In 1652 there was then published, with the approval of the prince Matthew Basarab at Târgoviște, the Indreptarea legei (= Nomocanon), also called Pravila cea Mare, an ecclesiastical rather than civil code, which remained officially the code of the Romanian Church down to our own days. The first part contains 417 canons, of which 314 are taken from the Nomocanon of Malaxos, 103 from the code of the prince Basil Lupu of Moldavia (1646). The second part gives the Synopsis canonum with the commentary of Aristenos. The text of both parts, however, often has the character of a paraphrase rather than of a literal version.

For some time the Bakteria, translated in the 18th century into Romanian, and the Pedalion, published in 1844 in a Romanian version at the monastery of Neamț, also enjoyed much favor.

6. Georgian collections

Despite the frequent cultural and literary relations that Georgia had, from the time of its conversion, with Armenia and Palestine, a version of the canons in the Georgian language is known only from the period of the greatest Byzantine influence. It was still St. Euthymius (d. 1028), the tireless translator of the Iviron monastery (= of the Georgians) on Mount Athos, who, in addition to the penitential Nomocanon of John the Faster, also gave his countrymen in Georgian the canons of the Council of Trullo. The date of the version of the "Great Georgian Nomocanon," that is, of the Nomocanon in 14 titles, is disputed. Kekelidze believes that it was translated by Arsenius Iqalthoeli toward the end of the 11th century, while others, notably Beneševič, hold that a version had already existed in the 10th century and that Arsenius only produced a perfected version. Later, collections of the canons of the national councils and of the katholikoi were also made. These were then received into the great collection of Georgian laws made by King Vakhtang VI at the end of the 17th century.

b) V. N. Benešević, Ioannis Scholastici Synagoge L. titulorum, Monaco 1937; J. Voellus et Chr. Justellus, Bibliotheca iuris canonici veteris, II, Parigi 1661, pp. 499-602; J. B. Pitra, op. cit., II, pp. 375-85; V. N. Benešević, Synagoge u 50 titulov i drugie juridijskie sborniki Ioanna Shkolastika, Pietroburgo 1914; E. Schwartz, Die Kanonessammlung des Joh. Scholasticus (Sitzungsber. d. Bayr. Akad. d. Wiss., Phil.-hist. Abt., 6), Monaco 1933.

c) Pitra, op. cit., II, pp. 433-64; G. A. Rhalli e M. Potli, Συνταγμα τῶν θείων καὶ ἱερῶν κανόνων, I-IV, Atene 1852-54; G. Bevergius, Συνόδων, 2 voll., Oxford 1872; PG 104; V. N. Benešević, Kanonijskij Sbornik XIV titulov vo vtoroj četverti VII věka do 883 g., Pietroburgo 1905; E. Zacharić von Lingenthal, Über den Verfasser und die Quellen des (Pseudo-Photianschen) Nomokanon in XIV Titeln (Mémoires de l'Acad. impér. de St-Pétersbourg, 7e serie, 32, XVI).

d) M. Kraznošen, Sinopsis cerkowskij pravil i istorija ngo obrazovanija, in Vizant. Vremennik, 17 (1912), pp. 225-46; id., Tolkovateli kanonijskogo kodeksa Vostočnoj cerkvi, Aristin, Zonara i Valsamon, 2e ed., Jurjice 1911; E. Zacharić von Lingenthal, Die Synopsis canonum (Sitzungsber. d. Kais. Akad. d. Wiss.), 1877, pp. 1147-63; Voellus et Justellus, op. cit., II, pp. 673-709.

e) G. Bevergius, Συνόδων, II; PG, 144-45; Rhalli e Potli, op. cit., VI; F. N. Iljminski, Sobranie ili alfavitnaja Sintagom M. Vlastarja..., Simferopol 1901.

f) E. Zacharić von Lingenthal, Die Handbücher des geistlichen Rechtes aus den Zeiten des untergehenden byzantinischen Reiches und der türkischen Herrschaft (Mémoires de l'Acad. imp. des sciences de St-Pétersbourg, 7e serie, 28, VII); C. A. Spulber, Indreptarea legii, Bucurest 1938; K. I. Αναβωνιάτης, Ο Νομοκάνων τοῦ Μανωήλ Μαλαξιού, Atene 1916; id., Νομοκανουσί μελέτου, IV 1928; Γιάννη Δημ., Ο Νομοκάνων τοῦ Μαλαξιού ὡς πηγή δωκίων τοῦ μετὰ τὴν ἄλωναν Ἑλληνισμοῦ, in Πρατικά τῆς Ἀκούς, Ἀθηνῶν, 13 (1938), pp. 396-401.

g) Voellus et Justellus, op. cit., II, pp. 749-84; PG, 133, 9-62; Leuncelavius, Ius Graeco-Romanum, I, Francoforte 1596, pp. 1-60; St. Gr. Berechet, Istoria vechiului drept românesc, Jassy 1934, pp. 123, 130 eg.; L. Petit, Le manuel canonique du moine Chriotphore, in Echos d'Orient, 2 (1898), pp. 103-106; Chrysostomos Papadopoulos, Ἑλληνικὸ Σύλλογο τοῦ ἱερῶν κανόνων κατὰ τοὺς μετὰ τὴν ἄλωναν ζηθονος, in Θεολογία, 13 (1935), pp. 1-8. - Per le collezioni melchite: W. Riedel, Die Kirchenrechtsquellen des Patriarchats Alexandrien, Lipsia 1900; A. Cousso, Indication des sources du droit canon chez les Melchites, in Studi storici sulle fonti del diritto canonico orientale (Fonti, 8), Città del Vaticano 1932; G. Graf, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, I (Studi e Testi, 118), pp. 586-620; J. B. Darblade, La Collection canonique Melhite d'après les manuscrits arabes des XIIIe-XVIIe siècles, in Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 4 (1938), pp. 85-119; id., La Collection canonique arabe des Melhites, Harissa 1946. - Per le collezioni bulgare e serbe: N. Milas, O kanonijskim zbornicima pravoslavne cerke, Novi Sad 1886; id., Savinska Krmčija, Zadar 1886; Tschedomilj Mitrovits, Nomokanon der slavischen morgenländischen Kirche oder die Kormschaja Kniga, Vienna 1898; Stojan Novaković, Matije Vlastara Sintagmat, Belgrado 1907. - Per le collezioni russe: A. S. Pavlov, Personaliznij slavjano-ruskij nomokanon, Kazan 1869; H. F. Schmid, Die Nomokanonübersetzung der Methodismus, Lipsia 1922; V. N. Benešević, Drevne-slavjanskaja Kormčija XIV titulov bez tolkovanij, Pietroburgo 1907; I. I. Sreznevski, Obozrenie drevnikh russkih spiskov Kormčij Knigi, in Sbornik Otdelenija russkago jezyka i slov. imp. Akad. Nauk, 65; G. A. Rosenkampf, Obozrenie Kormčij Knigi, 2e ed., Pietroburgo 1839; Armilius Herman, De fontibus iuris ecclesiastici Russorum, Città del Vaticano 1936. - Per le collezioni romane: C. Popovici jun., Fontanele si Codicii dreptului bisericescu ortodoxu, Cernauti 1886; St. Gr. Berechet, Istoria vechiului drept românesc, I, Jassy 1934; C. A. Spulber, Indreptarea legii, Le Code valque de 1637, parte 1e, Bucurest 1938; Ioannes D. Dan, Pravila Magna etusque auctoritas in Ecclesia Romana, Roma 1944. - Per le collezioni georgiane: Vl. Benešević, Gruzinskij velikij nomokanon, in Khristianskij Vostok, 2 (1914), pp. 349-77; 3 (1917), pp. 112-27; J. Karst, Recherches sur l'histoire du droit ecclésiastique Carth-édien, in Archives du droit oriental, 1, pp. 321-99; id., Code g'orgien du roi Vakhtang VI, Strasburgo 1934 agg.

II. COLLECTIONS OF THE ALEXANDRINE RITE

Since the vast material concerning the canon law of the various non-Byzantine rites is for the most part neither edited nor explored, it is not possible to set out the history of the version and the reception of the canons more or less common to all the Eastern Churches and of their collections. We shall therefore limit ourselves to indicating, without entering into the history of their genesis, the great canonical collections which, at a given moment, make their appearance in all the rites and serve as manuals for the respective hierarchy.

1. Capte collections

In the Coptic Church the pseudo-apostolic ecclesiastical orders and the apocryphal canons have always enjoyed great authority, such as were for the most part gathered in the Arabic Octateuchos, in the "127 canons of the Apostles" and in similar writings. The authentic canons of the councils were also known, however, at least those prior to the Council of Chalcedon; they are found together with the pseudo-apostolic collections and the canons of the medieval patriarchs in the great collections of the 12th-14th centuries. Among these, mention must be made in the first place of the Nomocanon of Metropolitan Michael of Damietta, written in the 12th century. More important became the Nomocanon of aș-Șafi ibn al-«Assăl, written in 1236. He summarizes his sources in a personal and elegant manner. In the first part it is divided into 22 chapters, as much as the collections of canon law are wont to contain. The second part deals with civil law, that is, it comprises the "4 Books of the kings", a singular compilation which owes its origin without doubt to the Melkites. The first two books consist of the Prócheiros Nómos of Basil I and the "Syro-Roman Book". Nallino above all indicated the fictitious character of such compilations: Christians presented such books as the codes of their law so as not to appear inferior to the Muslims. Unlike the preceding ones, the collection of the canons of the priest Macarius (14th century) is not a systematic collection (or Nomocanon in the later sense of the word), but a "chronological" collection containing a vast material, taken in part from the Melkites, such as, for example, the canons of Chalcedon. A catalogue of the canons with their epitomized text is found finally in the "Lamp of the darkness" of Abû l-«Barakât (14th century), a theological encyclopedia that gathers every kind of information useful to clerics. The Nomocanon of aș-Șafi has recently been edited twice (Cairo 1908 and 1927) for the use of clerics.

2. Ethiopian collections

As with the other books, so the sources of ecclesiastical law reached the Ethiopian Church by means of the Copts. Nevertheless it seems that the Senodos or "book of the synods", in use among the Ethiopians, is rather of Melkite origin. It contains, alongside several series of apostolic canons, the Constitutio ecclesiastica aegyptiaca and other pseudo-apostolic sources, the genuine canons and the so-called Arabic canons of Nicaea and those of the first six local councils. The book was translated from Arabic, before the reign of Zar'â Jâ'qob (1434-68), it appears, since the latter sent it to Jerusalem.

The Fetba Nagast ("Legislation of the kings"), on the other hand, has the authority of a true code; it is nothing other than the version, often paraphrased and not infrequently incorrect, of the nomocanon of aș-Șafi ibn al-«Assăl. On the date of the version: 15th, 16th or 17th century, the authors dispute.

III. COLLECTIONS OF THE ANTIOCHENE RITE

1. Syriac collections

Among the Syrians the primitive collection of canons was received early; we have a Syriac version from the year 501 edited by F. Schultheze, Die syrischen Kanones der Synoden von Nicaea bis Chalcedon (Abhandl. Kön. Ges. der Wiss. Göttingen, Phil.-Hist. Kl., new series 10, 11 [Berlin 1908]). It comprises the Councils up to that of Chalcedon, except that of Ephesus. Another manuscript (after 641) contains a different version and also includes the Council of Ephesus; that of Chalcedon was added later. The canonical material was increased by the canons owed to famous personages, such as Rabbülâ, Severus, James of Ephesus, John bishop of Tela, and by decisions of the patriarchs. All these sources, as well as the pseudo-apostolic collections, for example the Syriac Octateuchos, later served Bar Hebraeus, the greatest writer of the Syriac Church (Monophysite), in compiling his "Book of Directions," divided into 40 chapters, of which the first 8 treat of ecclesiastical law, the others of civil, criminal and procedural law. This Nomocanon constitutes down to our own days the code of the Jacobite Syrians.

The same holds for the Jacobite Malankarese, that is, that part of the Christians of St. Thomas in southern India, who in the 17th century placed themselves under the jurisdiction of the Jacobite patriarch of Antioch.

2. The Maronite collections

The Maronites too received their canonical collection in the Middle Ages. A metropolitan David, in whom many wished to see the author, seems rather to have been the translator of this "Book of Direction" (1058-59). The sources are those found in similar collections, the canons of the ecumenical and local councils up to that of Chalcedon (of Ephesus only one canon), the 23 canons ascribed to the Council of Constantinople, the 130 "canons of the emperors Constantine, Theodosius and Leo," that is, the "Syro-Roman Book," etc. The Maronites also made much use of the Nomocanon of aṣ-Ṣafī.

IV. COLLECTIONS OF THE ARMENIAN RITE: v. ARMENIA.

V. COLLECTIONS OF THE CHALDEAN RITE

The Church of the Persian Empire seems to have received the canons of Nicaea (and perhaps also those of the local councils and of Constantinople) from Mārūtā, bishop of Majperqat, when, in the capacity of Byzantine ambassador, he came to Persia for the second time and reformed the Chaldean Church (409-10). For their part, the national synods issued decrees and canons. Thus the material was formed, collected, it seems, by the patriarch Timothy I (780-823), in the book of the Synodikon.

The later collections, produced by the work of private individuals, made much use of the Synodikon, adding to it the decrees of recent synods and of the Katholikos, as well as the decisions and replies of other ecclesiastics of great authority. An Arabic-language version of the Synodikon, with many omissions, was made by Elias, metropolitan of Damascus (after 893; = Elias al-Gawhari?). The same sources, but according to different criteria, were used in the collection of 'Abdallāh ibn aṭ-Ṭajjib, a learned philosopher, physician and priest of the 11th century (d. 1043). But all his predecessors were surpassed by the metropolitan 'Abdāb' (Ebedjesu) of Nisibis (d. 1318). In his "Epitome of the Synodal Canons" (also called Nomocanon) and in the "Order of Ecclesiastical Judgments" he gives a systematic exposition of the canons, introduced and accompanied by personal observations. At the synod of 1318 his work was officially approved by the Nestorian Church. Even today it is still its most authoritative collection.

Among the Catholic Malabarese, that is, the St. Thomas Christians united with the Catholic Church since the 16th century, the collections indicated are unknown and perhaps were never in use.

Emilio Herman