CANONS
89
CANONS
oftbeEngtiBhCharch. The legaliyeconstltiitioiii were ecdMiasdoal laws enacted in national synods, held un- der the cardfaials Otho and Othobon, legates from Pope Gregoiy IX and Pope Clement IT, hi the reign of king Henry III, abont the years 1220 and 1268. The pnvmdai constttntions are prindpaDy tlie decrees of provinoial sjmods, held under divers archbishops of Canterbury, from Stephen Lengton, in the reign of Henry III, to Heniy Chicheley, in the reign of Henry y, and adopted also by the province of York in the idgn of Henry YI. At the dawn of the Beformation, in the rdgn of Henry YIII, iCwas enacted in Parlia- ment that a review should be nad of the canon law ;. and tin saeh review should be made, all canons, con- stitatioas, ordfaiaiices, and synodals provincial being tfaen abeady made, and not repugnant to the law of the land <« the king's prerogative, should still be used and executed. And as no such review has yet been perfected, upon this enactment now depends the au- thority of the canon law in Engbmd, the limitations of whidi appear, upon the whole, to be as follows : that DO canon contrary to the common or statute law, or the prerogative joyt\^ is of any validity ; that, subject to this condition, the canons made anterior to the par- liamentaiy provision above mentioned, and adopted in our system (for there are some which have had no re- ception among us), are binding both on clergy and kity; but that canons made since that period, and having no sanction ftt>m the Parliament, are, as re- gards the fauty at least, <ii no force." See Cakoks of THE Church of Enolakd.
Befisre the Beformatbn, degrees were as frequent in the canon law as in the civil law. Many persons be- came graduates in both, or juris ntripsque doctores ; and tUs degree is stlU common in foreign universities. Bat Henry YIII, in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, issued a mandate to the University of Cam- bridge to tlie offset that no lectures on canon law ihoidd be read, and no degree whatever in that fiusulty conferred in the university for the frtture. It is prob- able that Oxford received a similar prohibition about the same time, as degrees in canon law have ever since been dbcontinned in England (JPetmy CjfdopcsdkLf vi, 314).
hi Scotland, Presbyterian though the ecclesiastical system of that country be, the old Roman canon law still prevails to a certain extent. '* So deep hath this canon law been rooted," observes Lord Stair, in his IntUtKtei of the Scotch Law^ "that even where the pope's authori^ is r^ected, yet consideration must be had to these laws, not only as those by which Church benefices have been erected and ordered, but as like- wise containing^ many equitable and profitable laws, which, because of their weighty matter, and theh* be- ing once received, may more fitiy be retained than re- jected." In two old Scotch acts of Parliament, made in 1540 and 1551, the canon law is used in conjunction with the Boman law to denote the common law of the ooontiy, the expression used being " the common law, baith canon, d^ and statutes of the realme" (Cham- bers's Encydopadkij s. v.).
In the United SUtes the Boman Catholic Church is niled by the Boman canon law, and also by the de- crees of national and provincial councils, and by the regnlstions set forth by the bishops, subject to the re- TirionofBome.
See, on the subject of this article generally, the fol- lowing authorities ; Herzog, ReaUEnq^dopadiej vH, 908 sq. ; Bbckstone, OommaUariet, i, 88; Knight, Po- filntrf DkHouartfy s. v.; Denouz, ThioL Scohdiqiie^ ii, )04 sq.; CnnnfaiSgbam, Higtorioal Theology^ voL ii, ch. zv; Hagenboch, TkeoL Bucgklopadie, § 112; Walter, Fmiimjmii Ecektioitici (Bmn, 1802); Boebma, ItuH- m, JurU Ctmomd (Hal. 1770, 6th ed.).
CAKOKS OP THE CHUBCH OP ENGLAND. The authority o/ the English canons rests upon ^^ the statute 25 Henry YIII, commonly called the act of
submission of the clergy, by which they acknowledged that the convocation had been always assembled by the king's writ ; and they promised, m vsrfro Mcerdbttt. not to attempt claim, or put in use, or enact, pro- mulge, or execute any new canons in convocation without the king's assent or license. Then follows this enacting clause, viz.: That they shall not at- tempt, allege, or claim, or put in use any constitutions or canons without the king's assent." The first book of English canons was published in Latin in 1571, archbishop Plarker and the bkhops of Ely and Win- chester being the principal agents in its construction, thon^ "all the bishops in both provinces in synod, in their own persons or by proxy, signed it." These canons underwent various modifications, until, in 1604, bishop Bancroft collected a hundred and forty-one can- ons out of the articles, injunctions, and synodical acts passed and published in the reigns of Edward TI and Elizabeth, which were adopted by the Convocation of that year. These canons, which at first appeared in Latin, we have in English, under the titie of ** Consti- tutions and Canons Ecclesiastical." The code of can- ons was amplified in 1606, and finally completed by the addition of seventeen more in 1640. Tbeydonot constitute the law of the land, because they were not made pursuant to the statute 25 Henry YIII, since they were made in a convocation, sitting by the king's writ to the archbishops, after the Parliament was dis- solved. After the Bestoration, when an act was pass- ed to restore the bishops to their ordinary jurisdiction, a proviso was made that the act should.not confirm the canons of 1640. This clause makes void the royal confirmation. Hence we may conclude that canons should be made in a convocation, the Parliament sit- ting; that, being so made, they are to be confirmed by the sovereign; and that witiiout such confirmation they do not bind the laity, much less any order or rulo made by a bishop alone, where there is neither custom nor canon for it. See Bum, EecUmutiocd Law^ App. to vol. iv. The canons are also given by Hammond, The Defimtums of Faith and Canona qf DtBcipUne, etc (New York, 1844, 12mo). See Cardwell, Sytodaha (Oxford, 1842, 2 vols. 8vo) ; Hall, Ingtmy on the Canom and Aride$ (London) ; Eden, Chur^ DiotioMay^ s. v. ; Uoolt, Church DictionaiyfB,Y. See Ekoland, Church