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- canon law - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
Also known as: jus canonicum
Written by
Peter J. Huizing,
Ladislas M. Örsy•All
Fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Article History
First Council of Nicaea
See all media
- Latin:
- jus canonicum
- Key People:
- Innocent IV
- St. Basil the Great
- Gregory IX
- Hincmar of Reims
- Saint Raymond of Peñafort
- Related Topics:
- dispensation
- council
- ecclesiastical court
- simony
- libri poenitentiales
See all related content →
canon law, body of laws made within certain Christian churches (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, independent churches of Eastern Christianity, and the Anglican Communion) by lawful ecclesiastical authority for the government both of the whole church and parts thereof and of the behavior and actions of individuals. In a wider sense the term includes precepts of divine law, natural or positive, incorporated in the canonical collections and codes.
Although canon law is historically continuous from the early church to the present, it has, as a result of doctrinal and ecclesiastical schisms, developed differing, though often similar, patterns of codification and norms in the various churches that have incorporated it into their ecclesiastical frameworks. The canon law of the Eastern and Western churches was much the same in form until these two groups of churches separated in the Schism of 1054. In Eastern Christianity, however, because of doctrinal and nationalistic disputes during the 5th–7th century, several church groups (especially non-Greek) separated themselves from the nominal head of Eastern Christianity, the patriarch of Constantinople, and developed their own bodies of canon law, often reflecting nationalistic concerns.
Canon law in the Western churches after 1054 developed without interruption until the Reformation of the 16th century. Though other churches of the Reformation rejected the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England retained the concept of canon law and developed its own type, which has acceptance in the churches of the Anglican Communion.
Canon law has had a long history of development throughout the Christian era. Not a static body of laws, it reflects social, political, economic, cultural, and ecclesiastical changes that have taken place in the past two millennia. During periods of social and cultural upheaval the church has not remained unaffected by its environment. Thus, canon law may be expected to be involved in the far-reaching changes that have come to be anticipated in the modern world.
Nature and significance
Britannica QuizChristianity QuizA church is defined as a community founded in a unity of faith, a sacramental fellowship of all members with Christ as Lord, and a unity of government. Many scholars assert that a church cannot exist without authority—i.e., binding rules and organizational structures—and that religion and law are mutually inclusive. Thus, the calling of a church leader to office is regarded as important in the organizational structure, and, like every other fundamental vocation in the churches that accept the validity of canon law, it is also viewed as sacramental and linked to the priesthood—which, in turn, involves a calling to leadership in liturgy and preaching. According to Roman Catholic belief, the mission of the college of Apostles (presided over by St. Peter in the 1st century ce) is continued in the college of bishops, presided over by the pope. Other churches may accept this view without at the same time accepting the authority of the pope. The validity of canon law thus rests on an acceptance of this sacramental view and of the transmitted mission of the Apostles through the bishops.
Historical and cultural importance of canon law
Canon law has functioned in different historical periods in the organization of the church’s liturgy, preaching, works of charity, and other activities through which Christianity was established and spread in the Mediterranean area and beyond. Canon law, moreover, had an essential role in the transmission of Greek and Roman jurisprudence and in the reception of Justinian law (Roman law as codified under the sponsorship of the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the 6th century) in Europe during the Middle Ages. Thus it is that the history of the Middle Ages, to the extent that they were dominated by ecclesiastical concerns, cannot be written without knowledge of the ecclesiastical institutions that were governed according to canon law. Medieval canon law also had a lasting influence on the law of the Protestant churches. Numerous institutions and concepts of canon law have influenced the secular law and jurisprudence in lands influenced by Protestantism—e.g., marriage law, the law of obligations, the doctrine of modes of property acquisition, possession, wills, legal persons, the law of criminal procedure, and the law concerning proof or evidence. International law owes its very origin to canonists and theologians, and the modern idea of the state goes back to the ideas developed by medieval canonists regarding the constitution of the church. The history of the legal principles of the relation of sacerdotium to imperium—i.e., of ecclesiastical to secular authority or of church to state—is a central factor in European history.
Problems in the study of canon law and its sources
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Because of the discontinuity that has developed between church and state in modern times and the more exclusively spiritual and pastoral function of church organization, scholars in canon law are searching for a recovery of vital contact among canon law and theology, biblical exegesis (critical interpretive principles of the Bible), and church history in their contemporary forms. Canon law scholars are also seeking a link with the empirical social sciences (e.g., sociology, anthropology, and other such disciplines), which is required for insight into and control of the application of canon law. The study of the history of canon law calls not only for juridical and historical training but also for insight into contemporary theological concepts and social relationships. Many sources, such as the documents of councils and popes, are often uncritical and found only in badly organized publications, and much of the material exists only in manuscripts and archives; frequently, the legal sources contain dead law (i.e., law no longer held valid) and say nothing about living law. What does and does not come under canon law, what is or is not a source of canon law, which law is universal and which local, and other such questions must be judged differently for different periods.
The function of canon law in liturgy, preaching, and social activities involves the development and maintenance of those institutions that are considered to be most serviceable for the personal life and faith of members of the church and for their vocation in the world. This function is thus concerned with a continual adaptation of canon law to the circ*mstances of the time as well as to personal needs.
