Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/330

 OANONS

282

CANONS

Greek Collections. — (1) In 451 there was quoted at the Council of Chalcedon a collection of councils no longer extant, nor has the name of the compiler ever transpired. It seems to have been based on the can- ons of Ancyra (314) and Neo-Csesarea (314-25), to which were added later those of Gangra (360-70). At the beginning of the collection were then placed the decrees of Nicoea (325); subsequently the canons of Antioch (341) were included, in which shape it was known to the Fathers of Chalcedon. In the latter part of the fifth century the canons of Laodicaea (343-81), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431), and Chalcedon (451), were incorporated with this eccle- siastical code, and finally (after the canons of Neo- Caesarea) the decrees of Sardica (343-44), in which form the collection was in use during the sixth cen- tury. Though unofficial in character, it represents (inclusive of sixty-eight canons taken from the "Canonical Epistles" of St. Basil, I, III) the conciliar discipline of the Greek Church between 500 and 600.

(2) This collection was chronological in order. Towards 535 an unknown compiler classified its ma- terials in a methodical way under sixty titles, and added to the canons twenty-one imperial constitu- tions relative to ecclesiastical matters taken from the Code of Justinian. This collection has been lost.

(3) Some years later (5411-550) Johannes Scholas- ticus, Patriarch of Constantinople, made use of this code to compile a new methodical collection, which he divided into fifty books. It is printed in the sec- ond volume of Voel and Just el, "Bibliotheca Juris Canoniei veteris" (Paris, 1661). After the emperor's death (565), the patriarch extracted from ten of the former's constitutions, known as "Novellas", some eighty-seven chapters and added them to the afore- said collection.

(4) In this way arose the mixed collections known as Nomocanons (Gk. vofwi, "laws", Kavoves, "can- ons"), containing not only ecclesiastical laws but also imperial laws pertaining to the same matters. The first of these was published under Emperor Maurice (582-602); under each title were given, after the canons, the corresponding civil laws. This collection (wrongly attributed to the afore-mentioned patriarch) is also found in the second volume of Voel and Justel (op. cit.).

(5) The Quinisext Council (695) of Constantinople, called Trullan from the hall of the palace (in trulto) where it was held, issued 102 disciplinary canons; it included also the canons of the former councils and certain patristic regulations, all of which it considered constitutive elements of the ecclesiastical law of the East. This collection contains, therefore, an official enumeration of the canons which then governed the Eastern Church, but no official approbation of a given collection or particular text of these canons. It is to be noted that the Apostolic See never fully approved this council. In 7S7 a similar recapitulation of the ancient canons was made by the Second Council of Nica-.a.

Itnlt>-Latin Collections. — (1) Latin Version of the Canons of Nicsea and Sardica. — The former council (325) was always held in the highest repute through- out the West, where its canons were in vigour together with those of Sardica, the complement of the anti- Aria u legislation of Nicsa, anil whose decrees had been drawn up originally in both Latin and Greek. The canons of the two councils were numbered in running order, as though they were the work of but one coun- cil la trait met with in divers Latin collections), which explains why the Council of Sardica is sometimes called oecumenical by earlier writers, and its canons attributed to the Council of Nicaea. For the text of the version as found in the various collections see Maassen, op. cit., p. 8 Bqq. The oldest versions of these canons quoted in the papal decretals are no longer extant.

(2) The "Hispana" or "Isidoriana" Version. — Towards the middle of the fifth century, perhaps earlier, there appeared a Latin version of the afore- said canons of Nica=a, Ancyra, Neo-Caesarea, and Gangra, to which were added a little later those of Antioch, Laodicaea, and Constantinople; the canons of Sardica were inserted about the same time after those of Gangra. Bickell considers it possible that this version was made in Northern Africa, while Walter inclines to Spain; it is now generally believed that the version was made in Italy. It was long be- lieved, however, that it came from Spain, hence the name of "Hispana" or "Isidoriana", the latter term derived from its insertion in the collection attributed to St. Isidore of Seville (see below, Spanish Collec- tions), in which it was edited, of course according to the text followed by the Spanish compiler.

(3) " Prisca " or " Itala " Version. — This, too, seems to have grown up gradually in the course of the fifth century, and in its present shape exhibits the afore- mentioned canons of Aneyra, Neo-Caesarea, Nicsea, Sardica, Gangra, Antioch, Chalcedon, and Constanti- nople. It came to be known as "Itala" from the place of its origin, and as " Prisca" because of an over- hasty conclusion that Dionysius Exiguus referred to it in the preface of his first collection when lie wrote: "Laurentius offended by the confusion that reigned in the ancient version [priscce versionis]." It was edited by Voel and Justel in the first volume of their above-quoted " Bibliotheca juris canoniei veteris"; a better text is that of the Ballerini brothers in the third volume of their edition of the works of St. Leo (P. L., LVI, 746).

(4) Collection of Dionysius Exiguus. — The collec- tions we have now to describe were justified and called for by the increasing canonical material of the Latin West in the course of the fifth century. It may be said at once that they were far from satisfactory. Towards 500 a Scythian monk, known as Dionysius Exiguus (q. v.), who had come to Rome after the death of Pope Gelasius (496), and who was well skilled in both Latin and Greek, undertook to bring out a more exact translation of the canons of the Greek councils. In a second effort he collected papal de- cretals from Siricius (3S4-S9) to Anastasius II (496- 98), inclusive, anterior therefore, to Pope Symmachus (514-23). By order of Pope Hormisdas (514-23), Dionysius made a third collection, in which he in- cluded the original text of all the canons of the Greek councils, together with a Latin version of the same. Of this collection the preface alone has survived. Finally, he combined the first and second in one col- lection, which thus united the canons of the councils and the papal decretals; it is in this shape that the work of Dionysius has reached us. This collection opens with a table or list of titles, each of which is afterwards repeated before the respective canons; then come the first fifty canons of the Apostles, the canons of the Greek councils, the canons of Carthage (419), and the canons of preceding African synods under Aurelius, which had been read and inserted in the Council of Carthage. This first part of the collec- tion is closed by a letter of Pope Boniface I, read at the same council, letters of Cyril of Alexandria and Atticus of Constantinople to the African Fathers, and a letter of Pope Celestine I. The second part of the collection opens likewise with a preface, in the shape of a letter to the priest Julian, and a table of titles; then follow one decretal of Siricius, twenty-one of Innocent I, one of Zozimus, fourof Boniface I. three of Celestine I, seven of Leo I, one of Gelasius I, and one of Anastasius II. The additions met with in Voel and Justel (op. cit.) are taken from inferior manu- scripts.

There were gaps in the work of Dionysius; he seems, in particular, to have taken the papal decre- tals, not from the archives of the Roman Church, but