CANONS
285
CANONS
which were gathered the privileges of that Church,
the collections of Lyons, Beauvais, Saint-Amand,
Fecamp, etc., in which were brought, together the
canons of the councils of France. (3) In the same
category may be placed the capitula or episcopal
statutes, i. e. decisions and regulations collected from
various quarters by local bishops for the use and di-
!i of their clergy (see Capittjlaeies), e. g. the
"Capitula" of Theodulf of Orleans, end of the eighth
century (P. L., CV), of Hatto of Basle (882,- in Mon.
Germ. Hist: Leges, I, 439-41), of Boniface of Mainz
(745, in D'Achery, Spicilegium, ed. nova I, 597).
Still other collections deal with some special point of
discipline. Such are the ancient liturgical collections
called by the Greeks "Euchologia" (q. v.) and by the
Latins "Libri mysteriorum", or "sacramentorum",
more usually "Sacramentaries" (q. v.), also since the
eighth century the "Ordines Romani" (q. v.) found
in P. L., LXX VIII. Here, too, belong the collections
of ecclesiastical formulae (see Formularies. Books
of), especially the "Liber Diurnus" (q. v.) of the
Roman Chancery, compiled probably between 685 ami
7S2(P. L..CY, I'l i, edited by Gamier (Paris, 1680)and
anew by M. de Rozieres (Paris. l.S(VJ), and by Th.
Sickel (Vienna, 1889). Special mention is due to the
"Penitentials" (Libri Pcenitentiales), collections of
penitential canons, councils, and catalogues of eccle-
siastical sanctions, to which were gradually added
rules for the administration of the Sacrament of
Penance. This important subject will be treated
more fully under the article Penitential Books.
Collections of Ecclcsiastico-Civil Laws. — The civil law. as such, has no standing in the canonical forum. Yet in the first centuries of her existence the Church often rounded out her own legislation by adopting certain provisions of the secular laws. Moreover, either by mutual agreement, asunder the Carlo vingian kings, or by the civil power's usurpation of ecclesias- tical domain, as frequently happened under the By- zantine emperors, the civil authority legislated on matters in themselves purely canonical; such laws it red an ecclesiastic to know. Moreover, the priest often needs some acquaintance with the perti- nent civil law in order to decide properly even in purely secular matters that are occasionally sub- mitted to him. Hence the utility of collections of civil laws concerning ecclesiastical matters or the ad- ministration of the canonical laws (praxis canotiica). We have already noted in the East the collections known as "Xomocanones"; the West also had mixed collections of the same nature.
(1) Collections of Roman Law. — This law inter- ested quite particularly the ecclesiastics of the bar- barian kingdoms that rose on the ruins of the \\ esti rn Empire, since they continued to live by it (Ecclesia vivit lege romana); moreover, apart from the laws of the Anglo-Saxons, the legislation of all (he barbarian peoples of Caul. Spain, and Italy was profoundly influenced by the Roman law. The "Lex romana canonice compta ', apparently compiled in Lombardy during the ninth century, and handed down in a manuscript of the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. It includes portions of the "Institutiones" of the "Codex" of Justinian, and of the "Epitome" of Julian.
(2) Capitularies of the Prankish Kings. — The laws of the latter were very favourable to religious inter- ests; not a few of them were the result of the mutual deliberations of both the civil and the ecclesiastical power. Hence the exceptional authority of the royal capitularies (q. v.) before ecclesiastical tribunals. In the first half of the ninth century Ansegisus, Abbot of Fontenelles (823-33), collected in four books capil - ularies of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, and Lo- thaire; the first two books contain provisions con- cerning the "ecclesiastical order", the latter two exhibit the "law of the world". Ansegisus himself
added three appendixes. His work was widely used
in France, Germany, and Italy, and was quoted in
diets and councils as an aumentic collection.
This rapid sketch exhibits the vitality of the Church from the earliest centuries, and her constant activity for the preservation of ecclesiastical discipline. Dur- ing this long elaboration the Greek Church unifies her legislation, but accepts little from beyond her own boundaries. On the other hand the Western Church, with perhaps the sole exception of Africa, makes progress in the development of local discipline and exhibits an anxiety to harmonize particular legisla- tion with the decretals of the popes, the canons of general councils, and the special legislation of the rest of the Church. Doubtless in the above-described collection of canons, the result of this long disciplinary development, we meet with forged decrees of councils and decretals of popes, even with forged collections, e. g. the collections of pseudo-Apostolic legislation. Nevertheless the influence of these apocrypha] works on other canonical collections was restricted. The latter were, almost universally, made up of authentic documents. Canonical science in the future would have been nourished exclusively from legitimate sources had not a larger number of forged documents appeared about the middle of the ninth century (Capitula of Benedict Levita, Capitula Angilramni, Canons of Isaac of Langres, above all the collection of Pseudo-Isidore. See False Decretals). But ecclesiastical vigilance did not cease; in the West especially, the Church kept up an energetic protest against the decay of her discipline; witness the many councils, diocesan synods, and mixed assemblies of bishops and civil otiicials, also the numerous (over forty) new canonical collections from the ninth to the beginning of the twelfth century and whose methodi- cal order foreshadows the great juridical syntheses of later centuries. Being compiled, however, for the most part not direct ly from the original canonical sources, but from immediately preceding collections, which in turn often depend on apocryphal productions of the ninth century, they appear tainted to the extent in which they make use of these forgeries. Such taint, how- ever, affects the critical value of these collections rather than the legitimacy of the legislation which they exhibit. While the "False Decretals" affected certainly ecclesiastical discipline, it is now generally recognized that they did not introduce any essential or constitutional modifications. They gave a more explicit formulation to certain principles of the con- stitution of the Church, or brought more frequently into practice certain rules hitherto less recognized in daily use. As to the substance of this long develop- ment of disciplinary legislation, we may recognize with Paul Fournier a double current. The German collections, while not failing to admit the rights of the papal primacy, are seemingly concerned with the adaptation of the canons to actual needs of time and place; this is particularly visible in I lie collection of Burchard of Worms. The Italian collections, on the other hand, insist more on the riglits of the papal primacy, anil in general of the spiritual power. M. Fournier indicates, a- especially influential in this sense, the Collection in Seventy-four Titles. Both tendencies meet and unite in the works of Yvo of Chart res. The compilations of this epoch may, there- fore, be classed in these two broad categories. We do not, however, insist too strongly on these views, as yet somewhat provisory, and proceed to describe the principal collections of the next period, following, as a rule, the chronological order.
End of the Ninth Centum to (Iratian (1139- 50). — In these two centuries the ecclesiastical authori- ties were quite active in their efforts to withstand the decay of Christian discipline; the evidence of this is seen in the frequency of councils, mixed assemblies of bishops and imperial officials, and diocesan synods
