SYNTAGMA
394
SYON
the data of Patristic tradition and those disclosed by
hterary analysis. Such theory, when framed, will
undoubtedly supply the fullest vindication of the his-
torical value of our Synoptic records.
The Synoptic Question and the Biblical Com- mission. — The only decree thus far enacted by the Biblical Commission, which has a bearing on the Synoptic Question, was issued 19 June, 1911. Its direct object is to affirm the traditional authorship, date of composition, and historical character of St. Matthew's Gospel. Accordinglj-, it declares that the author of our first Gospel is no other than the Apostle St. Matthew, who WTote before the other Evangelists and considerably before the destruction of Jerusalem, in the language of the Palestinian Jews for whom he composed his work. It authoritatively affirms that the original work of St. Matthew was not a mere col- lection of the sayings and deeds of Christ, but a Gos- pel substantially identical with our present Greek Gospel according to St. Matthew. It finally pro- claims the historical character of our first Gospel and the genuineness of .some of its portions (the first two chapters; dogmatic pas.sages concerning the primacy of Peter, the form of bajjtism, etc.), which has been questioned by modern critics. Hence it is plain that by this decree the Biblical Commission did not intend to deal with the Synoptic problem, to set forth an ex- planation of the resemblances and differences dis- closed by a comparison of our first three Gospels. Yet, the Roman decree has a particular bearing on the theories of mutual dependence and earlier docu- ments put forth as solutions of the Synoptic question. In deciding the priority of St. Matthew's Gospel in its original language and substance, to the other evan- gelical narratives, the Bibhcal Commission has sol- emnly disapproved of any form of those theories which maintains that St. Matthew's original work was not a complete Gospel or the first Gospel in the order of time. In fact those Catholic scholars who admit either of these theories regard our Greek Gos- pel according to St. Matthew as a work which goes back in its primitive Aramaic form to the Apostle of that name, and restrict its dependence on St. Mark to its extant Greek translation.
(The names of Catholic authors are marked with an asterisk.)
Synopses: — Rushbrooke, Synopticoii (London. ISSO) ; Wright, A Synopsis of the Gospels in Greek (London, 1903) : Hdck, Synopse (Tubingen, 1910); Camerlynck* and Coppietebs*. Evangeli- orum sec. Matt., Marc., et Luc. synopsis (Bruges, 1910).
Introductions to N. T.: — Cornely* (Paris, 1S97); Weiss (Berlin, 1897); Godet (Neuehatel, 1904); Belser* (Freiburg, 1905): GuTJAHH* (Gratz. 1905): Jacqoter* (Paris, 1905): JiJlicher (Tubingen, 1906); Zahn (tr. Edinburgh, 1909); Brassac* (Paris. 1910); Moffatt (New York, 1911).
Works on the Synoptic Problem: — Calmes*, Comment se .font formis les ^vangiles (Paris. 1899); Wernle, Die synoptische Frage (Freiburg, 1900); Bonaccorsi*. 7 tre primi vangeli e la critica letteraria ossia la questione sinottica (Monza, 1904) ; Wellhausen, Einteitung in die drei ersten Evangelien (Berlin, 1905) ; Weiss, Die Quellen der synoptischen Uberlieferung (Leipzig, 1908) ; Nicolardot, Les procidis de rMaction des trois premiers fvan- gilistes (Paris, 1908); Hawkins, Hora synoptic/^ (Oxford, 1909); BoNKAMP*. Zur Evangelien Frage (MUnster, 1909); Harnack, The Sayings of Jesus (New York, 1908); Idem, The Date of the Acts and Synoptic Gospels (New York, 1911); Stanton, The Gospels as Historical Documents, II (Cambridge, 1909); Camer- lynck* AND CoppiETERS*. Syuopsis (Bruges, 1910) ; IBurkitt, The Earliest Sources for the Life of Jesus (New York, 1910); San- day, Oiford Studies in the Synoptic Problem (Oxford, 1911); Pasquier*, La solution du problime synoptique (Tours, 1911).
For action of the Biblical Commission see Acta Apostolicw Sedis
(Rome, lull). Francis E. Gigot.
Syntagma Canonum, a canonical collection made in i:i)i5 by HIastares, a Greek monk about whose life nothing certain is known. The collector aimed at reducing canon law to .a handier and more accessible form than it appeared in the Nomocanon of Photius, and to give a more comprehensive jiresentation than the epitomes and synopses of earlier writers such as Stephen (fifth century), Aristeniis (lltiO), Arsenius (1255), etc. The author arranged his matter in al- phabetical order. He made 24 general divisions, each marked off by a letter of the Greek alphabet.
These sections he subdivided into 303 titles, themselvea ■
distinguished by letters ; for example, the third section ■
contains such topics as: ircpi ydiwv (about marriage),
Tcpl yvvaiKdi' (about women), etc. The titles ordi-
narily treat of the civil law (^A^oi toXitikoI), as well
as ecclesiastical law. Some titles however are purely
ecclesiastical, others purely civil. The church ordi-
nances are quoted from previous collections, espe-
cially from the Nomocanon (S83), while the extracts
from the civil law are for the most part transcribed
without any reference to their origin. The compila-
tion soon came into general use among the clergy, and
preserved its authority even under Turkish rule. A
translation into Servian followed close upon its first
pubUcation. It even worked its way into the pohti-
cal life of the Servian people through an abridgment
which King Douchan appended to his code of laws
(1349). From this the purely ecclesiastical enact-
ments were excluded, but the civil law contained in the
Syntagma was reproduced whenever adaptable to the
social condition of the people. In the sixteenth cen-
tury the SjTitagma Canonum was translated into Bul-
garian; in the seventeenth century into Russian.
Beveridge, Synodicon orientate, II, 1-272; P, G., CXLIV, 959-1400; MORTREUIL, Hist, du droit bymntin. III, 457-64; Heimbach, Griech.-R6m. Recht in Ersch and Gruber, Encyclop. LXXXVI, 467-70. tr. Petit in Vacant and Manoesot, Did. de thiol. cathoL, a. v. Blastares. JoHN DeLAUNAT.
Syon Monastery, Middlesex, England, founded in 1415 by King Henry V at his manor of Isleworth. The "Monastery of St. Saviour and St. Bridget of Syon" was the only one in England belonging to the modified order of St. Augustine, as reformed by St. Bridget (see Brigittines), and comprised thirteen priests, four deacons, and eight lay brethren, be- sides sixty nuns. The property extended for half a mile along the bank of the Thames, near Twicken- ham; and the chief duty of the community was to pray for the souls of the royal founder and his near relatives and for all the faithful departed. Martin V confirmed the foundation in 1418, and the first novices were professed in 1420. Six years later the Regent (John, Duke of Bedford) laid the first stone of the chapel; endowments and benefactions rapidly flowed in, and towards the close of the century and a quarter which elapsed between its foundation and dissolution, the annual income of the monastery was estimated at £1730, equal in modern money to 100,- 000 dollars. The good observance of Syon was maintained to the last; and even Lay ton and Bedell, Henry VIII's servile commissioners, could find little or nothing to bring against the community. The I inmates were nevertheless expelled in 1539, and the buiklings seized by Henry, who imprisoned his fifth wife, Katherine Howard, in them for some months. : The nuns retired to a house of their order in Flanders, but in 1557, on the accession of Queen Mary, they returned to Syon, and the greater part of their prop- erty was restored to them. At the queen's death, however, they were once more exiled, and after various wanderings in France and Spain settled in Lisbon, where they still own property. The Lisbon com- munity returned to England in 1S61, settling at Spcttisbury, Dorsetshire (transferred to Chudleigh, Devon, in 1SS7). The Isleworth monjistery was granted by James I to the ninth Earl of Northum- berland, whose descendants still hold it. The present mansion is mostly the work of Inigo Jones, the ancient mulberry-trees in the garden being, it is said, the sole relic of the conventual domain.
ACNOER. Ili^fort/ and .Antiquities of Syon Monastery (London, 1840): Bi INI. Tl.. ^r,nur,■ of our Ladue: offices used at Syon (.'Lon- don, lS7:i', 111 ■■ ill i introduction; Dugdale, ifonaslic. Angli- can.. VI 1 n 1 n IS • >. .540, 541; WiLUS, History of Abbies, II (Lond.in, i;ii. In; T.K}itiER, Notitia mona.itica: Middlesex, II (London, I7f.7i; i*AXTER. Syon Abbey (Chudleigh, s. d.); Gasqcet. Henry VIII and the English Monasteries, II (London, 1889), 250, 459, 470, 483.
D. O. Hunter-Blair.
