canon law

canon law. The body of ecclesiastical rules or laws imposed by authority in matters of faith, morals, and discipline. Its beginnings may be traced to the practice of convening Councils to settle matters of uncertainty or dispute and their issue of ad hoc pronouncements (known as ‘canons’) on matters of doctrine and discipline. The decrees of influential bishops were another source of ecclesiastical legislation, and special authority attached to the letters of Popes (Decretals). An important stage in the development of canon law was reached when Gratian issued his Decretum (c.1140). Though in essence this was a private collection, such authority was accorded to it that it was supplemented by a series of later collections to form the Corpus Iuris Canonici (q.v.), which enjoyed authority until it was overhauled and codified in the Codex Iuris Canonici promulgated in 1917. This Code was revised and promulgated anew in 1983. A separate Code for the Uniat Churches was promulgated in 1990.

In addition to laws regarded as universally binding, there have been others of local authority, such as the Synodical Constitutions of the Province of Canterbury. See also CANONS, THE.

In the E., under the Byzantine Empire, there was a less clear distinction between the law of the Church and of the State than in the W. Imperial legislation dealt with ecclesiastical matters, and Justinian decreed that canons had the ‘force of law’. The development of specifically ecclesiastical law took the form of commentary on collections of canons (especially the Nomocanon).