CANONS
284
CANONS
modified it to suit the Spanish discipline of his time.
Though much has been borrowed from Latin. Gallican,
and African Councils, it is the Greek Councils that
furnish the greater part of the canons. The "Capi-
tula" were read and approved at the Council of Braga
(572). Some writers, misled by the name, attributed
them to Pope Martin I; they are in reality the work
of Martin of Pannonia, better known as Martin of
Braga (q. v.), of which place he was archbishop in the
sixth century. Their text was incorporated with the
" Isidoriana", from which they were taken and edited
apart by Merlin and by Caspar Loaisa, and in the
first volume of the oft-quoted work by Voel and Jus-
tel, after collation of the variants in the best manu-
scripts.
(2) The Spanish "Epitome", the name of the col- lection edited by the Ballerini (op. cit., Ill, IV) from two manuscripts (Verona and Lucca). It has two parts: one includes the canons of Greek, African, Gal- lican, and Spanish councils; the other divers papal decretals from Siricius to Vigilius (384-555), with two apocryphal texts of St. Clement and an extract from St. Jerome. The compiler designedly abridged his texts, and mentions only three sources, a Braga col- lection (the "Capitula Martini", his first chapter being a resume of that work), an Alcahi (Complutum) collection, and one of Cabra (Agrabensis). Though characterized by lack of order and exactness, the "Epitome" interests us because of the antiquity of its sources. Maassen thinks it connected with the "Codex Canonum", the nucleus of the group of col- lections whence eventually issued the "Hispana", and of which we shall treat apropos Of the latter.
(3) The "Hispana" or "Isidoriana". — This collec- tion must not be confounded with the above-described "Versio Hispanica" or "Isidoriana", among the ear- lier Latin collections, and which contained only canons of Greek councils. The collection in question, like that of Dionysius Exiguus on which it is based, contains two parts: the first includes canons of Greek, African, Gallican, and Spanish councils, with some letters of St. Cyril of Alexandria and Atticus of Con- stantinople, while the second has the papal decretals as found in Dionysius, together with some others, most of the latter addressed to Spanish bishops. This is the chronological "Hispana". Somewhat later, to- wards the end of the seventh century, it was recast in logical order, by some unknown writer, and divided into ten books, which were again subdivided into titles and chapters. This is the methodical "His- pana". Finally, the copyists were wont to place at the beginning of the chronological "Hispana" a table of contents of the methodical collection, but with references to the text of the chronological: in this shape it was known as the "Excerpta Canonum". The chronological "Hispana" seems to have been originally the "Codex Canonum" mentioned at the Fourth Council of Toledo (033), with later additions. In the ninth century it was attributed, with insuffi- cient evidence, to St. Isidore of Seville. In spite of this erroneous attribution, the "Hispana contains very few documents of doubtful authenticity. Later on, additions wen- made to it. the latest being taken from the seventeenth council of Toledo (694). In this enlarged form, i. e. the "Codex Canonum 1 , the "Hispana" was approved by Alexander III as authen- tic (Innocent III. Ep. 121, to Peter, Archbishop of Compostella). Until the thirteenth century, its au- thority was great in Spain. Pseudo Isidore (see below t made a generous use of its materials. (See the text in P. L., LXXWIV. reprinted from the edition of Madrid. 1S0S-21, executed at the Royal Printing
I louse).
Gallican Collections— (\) The "Collectio Quesnelli- ana". — The close relations of the churches of Gaul with those of Italy anil Spain familiarized the former at an early date with the canonical collections of the
latter churches, to which were added the canons of
their own Gallican synods. At the beginning of the
sixth century there arose in Gaul an extensive collec-
tion, based apparently on the "Antiqua Isidoriana",
the "Prisca", the "Chieti" collection (see above),
and the African collections, and wdiieh, besides the
earliest Eastern and the African councils, includes
papal decretals, letters of Gallican bishops, and other
documents. It is of Gallican origin, though it in-
cludes no councils of Gaul. Its name is derived from
the Oratorian, P. Quesnel, its first editor, who
wrongly entitled it "Codex Canonum ecclesia^ Ro-
manae", and tried to prove that it was an official
collection of the Roman Church. It cannot, there-
fore, serve as authentic confirmation of the usages of
that Church or of the churches of Africa. The Bal-
lerini reprinted it in the third volume of their edition
of the works of St. Leo I, with excellent dissertations
against Quesnel (P. L., LVI). During the sixth and
succeeding centuries the canonical compilers kept at
their task; they received the African canons, those of
Gallican councils, the statutes and letters of national
bishops. Some of these collections were chronolog-
ical, others methodical (see the Ballerini. II. x and
Maassen, op. cit., 556, 821). We have already called
attention to the importance (after 802) of the "Col-
lectio Dionysio-Hadriana".
(2) The "Codex Carolinus", a collection of papal decretals addressed to Charles Martel, Pepin, and Charlemagne, compiled by the latter 's order in 791 (P. L., XCVIII), not to be confounded with the "Libri Carolini" (see Caroline Books) in which were set forth for Pope Adrian I various dnbia concerning the veneration of images.
English and Irish Collections. — Before the seventh century we meet with no collections of canons par- ticular to the English and Irish Churches. In Eng- land ecclesiastical discipline is at this time based on the provincial councils, which draw their inspiration from the general councils, and are reinforced by the ordinances of the Anglo-Saxon kings. Roman col- lect inns appear in 673 when Dionysius Exiguus is quoted at the Council of Hertford. Thenceforth ap- pear various collections of local origin, e. g. the "De Jure Sacerdotali" (P. L., LXVIII) and the "Excerp- tiones" attributed (but without sufficient reason) to Egbert of York (d. 767). The most celebrate. 1 of these collections is the "Synodus Patritii" or "Col- lectio Hibernensis", of the early part of the eighth century, whose compiler put together previous siastical legislation in sixty-four to sixty-nine chap- ters, preceded by extracts from the " Etymologise" of St. Isidore concerning synodal regulations. The pref- ace states that for the sake of brevity and clearness, and to reconcile certain juridical antinomies, effort is made to render the sense of the canons rather than their letter. It is a methodical collection to the extent that the matters treated are placed in their respective chapters, but there is much confusion in the distribu- tion of I lie latter. In spite of its defects this collec- tion made its way into France and Italy and until the twelfth century "influenced the ecclesiastical legisla- tion of churches in both countries (Paul Founder, |),. I'influence de la collection irlandaise sur les collec- tions canoniques).
Particular Collections. — Apart from the above- described general collections there are .some or particular collections that deserve brief mention. (1) Some of them deal with a particular heresy or schism, e. g, the collections of Tours, Verona, Salz- b Monie Cassino, those of Notre Dame, of Husti- eus^ the Novaro-Vaticana, and the "Codex Ency- clius" relative to Eutyches and the Council of Chal- eedon, the "Veronensis" and the "Virdunensds" in i he affair of Acacius. (2) Others contain the docu- ments and juridical texts that concern an individual church or country, e. g. the collection of Aries, in
