RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Canon Law-
made of it for the completion of the Isidorian version and for other collections, especially Italian.
It was first published by Justeau in 2. The the Bibliotheca juris canonici from Prisca. an imperfect manuscript, then more
fully and accurately by the Ballerini brothers. (3) That made by Dionysius Exiguus, probably in Rome at the end of the fifth century, and revised early in the sixth. It contains fifty
"apostolic canons"; those of Nicsea,
3. Collec- Ancyra, Neoceesarea, Gangra, Antioch, tions of Laodicea, and Constantinople from a
Dionysius. Greek collection ; from another twentyseven of Chalcedon in a new version; twenty-one of Sardica in the Latin original; and the acts of the Synod of Carthage (419). Somewhat later, probably under Pope Symmachus (498-514), Dionysius made another collection of all the decrees of popes known to him, including those of Siricius, Innocent I., Zosimus, Boniface I., Celestine I., Leo I., Gelasius I., and Anastasius II. Of a third collection made by order of Pope Hormisdas (514-523), and containing the original text of Greek canons with a Latin version, only the prologue is extant. The first two, however, combined into one, soon acquired preeminent consideration; Cassiodorus (d. 536) says that they were universally preferred in the Roman church of his time; they were used in Africa, the Frankish church, Spain, England, and Ireland. They were supplemented in course of time by the decretals of Hilary, Simplicius, Felix, Symmachus, Hormisdas, and Gregory II. A codex thus enlarged was presented by Adrian II. to Charlemagne in 774; this was taken, after the Capitulare ecclesiasticum of 789, as the basis of the Frankish capitularies, and probably sanctioned at the Synod of Aachen in 802 as the official code of the Frankish church.
4. Next Period, by Countries: The canonical collections of the succeeding period may most conveniently be grouped under their respective countries. In Africa discipline rested primarily on the decrees of home councils, special weight
being given to the Synod of Carthage
1. Africa, in 419, with whose acts those of the
synods held under Aurelius from 393 were incorporated. These are the canons included, though imperfectly, in the collection of Dionysius; they were later translated into Greek and received into Oriental collections. Of other African collections only two require special mention — that made before 546 by Fulgentius Ferrandus, a Carthaginian deacon, under the name of Breviatio canonum, containing some of the Greek canons in the Isidorian version and African canons down to 523, and the Concordia canonum, compiled c. 690 (?) by Cresconius, possibly a bishop.
Spain had its collections of canons and decretals in the sixth century, as is shown by the acts of the
Council of Braga in 563 and the Third
2. Spain, of Toledo in 579. The enforcement
of order and discipline required a completer codification, and a large collection seems to have been made at the Fourth Council of Toledo (633). By later additions it acquired the form in which it is now printed (Madrid, 1808). Its first
or conciliar part contains the Greek canons found in the Isidorian version, those of Sardica, those of the Third Council of Constantinople (681), and two letters of Cyril under the name of the Council of Ephesus; nine African councils; sixteen Gallic councils, from 314 to 549; and thirty-six Spanish, from 305 (?) to 694. In this last division, to the canons of the Second Council of Braga is appended a collection made by Martin, archbishop of Braga, a native of Pannonia (d. about 580), by free translation and selection of Greek, African, Gallic, and Spanish canons. The second part contains decretals of the popes from Damasus to Gregory L, including all that Dionysius had placed in his. The compiler of this great collection, usually cited as Hispana, is unknown. There is no evidence to^ show that Isidore of Seville had any direct hand in it; his name was first connected with it by the compiler of the False Decretals, who incorporated the older and genuine collection with them.
In the British Isles the Celtic church developed
a disciplinary system of its own in synods of whose
proceedings scarcely anything has been preserved.
For certain fifth- and sixth-century canons of a
penitential nature, see Penitential Books.
The Anglo-Saxon church in like manner relied
for a long time on its own legislative resources,
though the collection of Dionysius
3. British was known here in the seventh century.
Isles. Except the penitential ordinances of
Theodore, Bede, and Egbert, no
Anglo-Saxon canons are extant. There is, howeverr
an Irish collection of the seventh century or begin-
ning of the eighth, compiled from Scripture, the
Fathers, numerous Greek, African, Gallic, Spanish,
and Irish synods, and papal decretals. The large
number of Irish canons gives a specially interesting
insight into the conditions of church life there.
The Frankish empire, before the period mentioned above, possessed a number of collections of Greek, Gallic, and Spanish canons and papal decretals, which, however, need no detailed consideration. Besides the enlarged Dionysian collection, the Hispana was also known at the end of the eighth century, and was used to complete the Codex sent by Adrian. The large extent of this material and its lack of chronological arrangement soon brought about attempts at selection and systematic arrangement, which were frequent in the eighth and ninth centuries, and of which some deserve 4. Frankish special mention. (1) A collection in Empire. 381 chapters, sometimes found independently, sometimes as a fourth book to the canonical work erroneously ascribed to Archbishop Egbert of York. It dates from the end of the eighth century, and is important because of the use made of it by Regino (see below, 5) and of the help which it gives toward explaining a number of erroneous titles which passed over into this and the Decreta of Burchard and Gratian. (2) The Collectio Acheriana, so called from its first publisher D'Achery, extant in numerous manuscripts and belonging to the end of the eighth or beginning of the ninth century. Its canons, divi^ ded into three books, are taken without exception from Adrian's edition of Dionysius and from the
Canon Iiaw