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 CANONS

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CANONS

time of his "Nova Bibliotheea Patrum" (Rome, 1854).

The " Polycarpus", a collection in eight books so called by its author, Gregory, Cardinal of San Criso- and dedicated to an Archbishop of Compostella, of whose name only the initial "D." is given; in all probability he is Didacus, archbishop of that see from 110] to 1120, which is therefore the approximate date of the "Polycarpus". It seems to depend on Anselm of Lucca and on the "Collectio Anselmo dedicata", and the above-mentioned "Collection in Seventy- four Books"; the author, however, must have had access to the Roman archives. This collection is as ledited.

Collection of Ym of Chartres. — Both by his writings and his acta this great bishop exercised a pronounced influence on the development of canon law in the first quarter of the twelfth century (he died 1 1 15 or 1117). we owe to Paul Fournier a profound study of his juridical activity ("Les collections canoniques at- tributes a Yves de Chartres", Paris. ISO", and "Yves de Chartres et le droit canonique" in "Revue des questions historiques", 1898, LXII, 51, 385). Nbl to mention the "Tripartita" (see below), he has left us: (\ < The "Decretum", a vast repertory in seventeen parts and three thousand seven hundred and sixty chapters; though roughly- subdivided under the aforesaid seventeen rubrics, its contents are thrown together without order and seemingly represent un- digested results of the author's studies and researches; hence it has been surmised that the "Decretum" is a mere preparatory outline of the " Panormia" (see be- low), its material in the rough. Theiner does not ad- mit that the "Decretum" is the work of Yvo; it is. nevertheless, generally accepted that Yvo is the author, or at least that he directed the compilation. Nearly all of Burchard is found therein, and in addi- tion a host of canonical texts, also Roman and Prank- ish law texts gathered from Italian sources. Fournier dates it between 1090 and 1095. It is found in P. L., (I. XI. (2) The "Panormia", admittedly a work of Yvo. It is much shorter than the "Decretum" (hav- ing only eight books) and is also more compact and orderly. Its material is taken from the Decretum, but it offers some additions, particularly in the- third and fourth books. It seems to have been composed about 1095. and appears at that time as a kind of methodical Summa of the canon law; with Burchard it divided popularity in the next fifty years, i. e. until the appearance of the "Decretum" of Gratian.

The "Tripartita", so called because of its triple division. It contains in its first part papal decretals as late as Urban II (d. 1099), and is therefore not of earlier date; its second part offers canons of the coun- cils after the " Hispana " text ; the third part contains extracts from the Fathers and from the Roman and the prankish law. Hitherto it was supposed to have been taken from the "Decretum" of Yvo or composed by some unknown author. Fournier. however, thinks that only the third book postdates the "Decretum", and then as an abridgment (A). The other two books he considers a trial-essay of the " Decretum", by Yvo himself, or by some writer who worked under his di- rection while he laboured at the vast bulk of the "Decretum". These two books, according to Four- nier, formed a separate collection (A) later on joined to the above-mentioned third book (B), in which maimer arose the actual "Tripartita". In this hy- pothesis many chapters in the "Decretum" were borrowed from the afore-mentioned (A) collection whose nucleus is found in its extracts from Pseudo- Isidore completed from divers other sources, espe- cially by use of a collection of Italian origin, now kept in the British Museum hence known as the "Britan- nica". The "Tripartita" is yet unedited.

Divers Collections. — All three of these above-de- scribed collections (Decretum, Panormia, Tripartita)

called for and found abridgements. Moreover, new collections arose, owing to fresh additions to these great compilations and new combinations with other similar works. Among them are: (1) The "Ca?sar- augustana", so called because found in a Carthusian monastery near Saragossa. It seems to have been compiled in Aquitaine, and contains no papal de- cretals later than Paschal II (d. 1118), which sug- gests its composition at a previous date. Its fifteen books borrow much from the "Decretum" of Yvo of Chartres. (2) The "Collection in Ten Parts", com- piled in France between 1125 and 1130, an enlarged edition of the "Panormia". (3) The "Summa- Decretorum" of Haymo, Bishop of Chalons (1153), an abridgment of the preceding. Antonius Augus- tinus (q. v.), who made known in the sixteenth cen- tury the "Csesaraugustana", revealed also the exist- ence of the "Tarraconensis". which came to him from the Cistercian monastery of Ploblete, near Tarragona. It is in six books and has no documents later than the reign of Gregory VII (d. 1085). It belongs, there- fore, to the end of the eleventh century: the "Cor- rectores Romani", to whom we owe (1572-85) the official edition of the "Corpus Juris canonici", made use of the "Tarraconensis". Fournier called atten- tion to twe manuscripts of this collection, one in the Vatican, the other in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris (see above, the Collection in Si. let coUeetoribus canonum

in P. L., I. VI. Uaassbn, Gesch. der Quellen und >. Proi. Kirchenrechts (Frei-

bursr, 1893 : Bickell, Gesch. den Kirrhcnrerhts (C.iossen, 1843), I: Walter, Lehri I i '• echti alter chrtstlichen Confer

sionen (Bonn, 1871); Pohi.e in Kirchentex., II, 1845.

Jules Bbsson.

Canons, Ecclesiastical, are certain rules or norms of conduct or belief prescribed by the Church. The name is derived from the Greek navuv, the instrument used by architects and artificers for making straight lines. Some writers think that the Church preferred the word canon to Jaw, as the latter had a harsh mean- ing for the faithful in the times of persecution. The early Fathers use canon as equivalent to the rule of faith, or for some formula expressing a binding obliga- tion on Christians (Irempus, Adv. Hair., I, ix; Tertul- lian, De Pnescr., 13). Bickell declares that for the first three hundred years, canon is scarcely ever found for a separate and special decree of the Church; rather does it designate the rule of faith in general. He ap- peals to the fact that the plural form of the word is seldom used in the earliest Christian writers (Bickell, Geschichte des Kirchenrechts, [, 8). With the fourth century began the use of canon for a disciplinary de- cree, owing to its employment in this sense by the First Council of Nice (32.5). The Cassinese editor- < if Ferraris (s. v. Canones) say that in the first ages of the Church many disciplinary regulations were not re- quired, and hence it was scarcely necessary to dis- criminate decrees into dogmatic and disciplinary, as the faithful classed both under the obligation to ob- serve the general rule of faith. Prom the fourth century onward, canon signified almost universally a disciplinary decree of a council or of the Roman pontiffs. The word decretum during the same period, though signifying in general an authoritative statute or decision, began to be limited more and more to dogmatic matters, while canon when used in opposi- tion to it was restricted to laws of discipline. That this usage, however, was not invariable is evident from Gratian's use of "Decretum" to signify his col- lection of canons and decrees. From the Council of Nice to that of Trent exclusive, the regulations con-