THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
38S
Empire, after gradual restrictions in many of the component states, it ceased on Jan. 1, 1900, to have any legal validity outside of the internal discipline of the Roman Catholic Church.
(J. F. VON ScHTJLTE.)
Bibliography: On the conception and apologetics of church law consult: W. T. Krug, Das Kirchenrecht nach Grundsiitzen der Vernunft und im Lichte des Christentums, Leipsic. 1826, cf. F. Schirmer, Kirchengeschichtliche Uniersuchungen, Berlin, 1829; C. Gross, Zur Begriffsbestimmung und Wilrdigung des Kirchenrechts, Graz, 1872.
Collections or digests supplementing those mentioned in the text are: Z. B. van Espen, Jus ecclesiasticum universale, 2 vols., Louvain, 1700; A. Reiffenstiil, Jus canonicum universum, 3 vols., Venice, 1704; J. H. Bohmer, Jus ecclesiasticum Protestantium, 5 vols., Halle, 1714; F. Schmalzgriiber, Jus ecclesiasticum universum, 5 vols., Ingolstadt, 1726. Other discussions are: J. F. Schulte, Das katholische Kirchenrecht, 2 vols., Giessen, 1856-60; D. Craisson, Manuale totius juris canonici, 4 vols., Paris, 1863; F. Walter, Lehrbuch des Kirchenrechts alter christlichen Konfessionen, 14th ed., Bonn, 1871; F. Thudichum, Kirchenrecht, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1877-78; A. L. Richter, Lehrbuch des katholischen und evangelischen Kirchenrechts, 8th ed. by W. Kahl, Leipsic, 1877-86; W. Kahl, Kirchenrecht und Kirchenpolitik, Freiburg, 1894; E. Geigel, Reichs- und reichslandisches Kirchen- und Stiftungsrecht, Strasburg, 1900; E. Friedberg, Lehrbuch des katholischen und evangelischen Kirchenrechts, Leipsic, 1903.
Works in Eng. on the general question are: J. Fulton,
Index: Canonum, Gk. Text with Translation and CompleU Digest of Canon Law of (he Universal Church, New York, 1892; S. B. Smith, Elements of Ecclesiastical Law, with Reference to the Syllabus, Constitutiones apostolical sedis of Pope Pius IX., the Council of the Vatican , 3
vols., ib. 1893-94. For English church law consult: E. Gibson, Codex juris ecclesiastici Anglicani: or, the Statutes, Constitutions, Canons, Rubrics, and Articles . Methodically Digested . with a Commentary, London, 1713, cf. [M. Foster], An Examination of the Scheme of Church- Power Laid Down in the Codex juris eccl. Anglicani, ib. 1735; C. H. Davis, English Church Canons of 1604; with historical Introduction and Notes, ib. 1869; M. E. C. Walcott, Constitutions and Canons Eclesiastical of the Church of England Referred to Their Original Sources . . . , ib. 1874; Sir. W. Phillimore, Law of the Church of England, 2 vols., ib. 1895; F. W. Maitland, Canon Law in England, ib. 1898; A. T. Wirgman, Constitutional Authority of the Bishops in the Catholic Church Illustrated by History and Canon Law, ib. 1899. Consult also E. Taunton, The Law of the Church. A Cyclopaedia of Canon Law for English-speaking Countries, London, 1906.
For American church law consult: F. Vinton, Manual Commentary on the General Canon Law of the Protestant Episcopal Church, New York, 1870; M. Hoffmann, Ecclesiastical Law in the State of New York, ib. 1868; idemt Ritual Law of the Church, ib. 1872; W S. Perry, The General Ecclesiastical Constitution of the American Churchy ib. 1891; Revised Constitution and Canons of the Protest tant Episcopal Church, ib. 1895; H. J. Desmond, The Church and the Law, with Special Reference to Ecclesiastical Law in the United States, Chicago, 1898.
. The Canon of the Old Testament.
1. History Among the Jews. Traditional Account of the Rise of
the Collection (§1).
The Theory of the Synagogue (§2).
Criticism of the Two Theories (§3).
Positive Exposition, a. The Pentateuch— the So-called " First Canon "; b. The Historico-prophetic and Distinctively Prophetic Books — the " Second Canon "; c. The Hagiographa — the " Third Canon " (§ 4).
2. Witnesses for the Second and Third
Parts of the Canon.
3. Supposed Jewish Dissent from the
Canon.
4. History of the Old Testament
Canon Among the Jews. The Triple Division (§1). Order (§ 2).
CANON OF SCRIPTURE.
Number of the Canonical Books (§3).
5. The Old Testament Canon in the
Christian Church. Patristic and Medieval Writers ( § 1 ). The Ancient Oriental Versions (§ 2). The Roman Catholic Church (§ 3). The Greek Church (§ 4). The Protestant Church (§5).
6. The Names of the Old Testament
and of Its Chief Divisions. II. The Canon of the New Testament.
1. The Terms Used.
2. The New Testament, 170-220. The Four Gospels (§ 1). The Pauline Letters (§ 2). The Acts of the Apostles (§ 3). The .Apocalypse ('§ 4). The Catholic Epistles (§ 5). Writings Temporarily Regarded as
Canonical (§ 6).
Canon of Scripture is a term that designates the books of the Bible accepted as authoritative. The word " canon " (Gk. kanon) means primarily a straight staff, then a measuring-rod, hence, figuratively, that which is artistically, scientifically, or ethically a guide or a model; so in the earliest Christian use (Gal. vi. 16; Phil. iii. 16; Clement of Rome, i. 7, 41) the canon was a leading thought, a normal principle. The next change of meaning (indicated by Clement of Alexandria, Strom., VII. xvi. 94) was to a type of Christian doctrine, the orthodox as opposed to the heretical. Since 300 the plural form " canons " has been used of ecclesiastical regulations (see Canon). Now, since the Christian doctrines were professedly based upon the Scriptures, the writings themselves were naturally known as the canon; and the test of the canonicity of any particular writing was its reception by the Church. The earliest use of the word in this sense is in the fifty-ninth canon of the Council of Laodicea (363), " No
Summary (§ 7).
3. The New Testament, 140-170. Marcion's Bible (§1). The Bible of the Valentinians (§2) The Apostolic Writings in Justin.
Martyr (§ 3).
4. The Oldest Traces and the Origin of Collections of Apostolic Writings.
The Collection of Pauline Letters
(§ 1). The " Gospel ;' (§ 2). Other Writings (§ 3).
5. Oragenuand hia School.
6. The Original New Testament of the Syrians.
7. Lucian and Eusebius.
8. Athanasius.
9. The Development in the Orient till the Time of Justinian.
10. The Assimilation of the West.
psalms of private authorship can be read in the Church, nor uncanonical books, but only the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments," and contemporaneously in Athanasius (Epistola festalis, i. 961, Paris, 1698). A few years later the use was general.
I. The Canon of the Old Testament. — 1. History Among the Jews: The theory, which was almost universally received for fifteen hundred years, that Ezra was the author of the Old Tesi. Tradi- tament canon, dates from the first tional Ac- Christian century; for it is found -ji count of the IV (II) Ezra xiv. 44 that Ezra was Rise of the inspired to dictate during forty days Collection, to five men ninety-four books, of which twenty-four were to be published. These twenty-four quite evidently are the twenty^four books of the Hebrew canon, according to the counting given below; and the seventy are the Jewish Apocrypha alluded to in the Gospel of Nicodemus xxviii. (ANF, viii. 453). What the