"Christian law" and "Ecclesiastical law" redirect here. For other types of religious law in Christianity, see
Religious law §?Christianity
.
Canon law
(from
Ancient Greek
:
καν?ν
,
kanon
, a 'straight measuring rod,
ruler
') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by
ecclesiastical authority
(church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is the internal
ecclesiastical
law, or operational policy, governing the
Catholic Church
(both the
Latin Church
and the
Eastern Catholic Churches
), the
Eastern Orthodox
and
Oriental Orthodox
churches, and the individual national churches within the
Anglican Communion
.
[1]
The way that such church law is
legislated
, interpreted and at times
adjudicated
varies widely among these four bodies of churches. In all three traditions, a
canon
was originally
[2]
a rule adopted by a
church council
; these canons formed the foundation of canon law.
Greek
kanon
/
Ancient Greek
:
καν?ν
,
[3]
Arabic
qaanoon
/
?????
,
Hebrew
kaneh
/
?????
, 'straight'; a rule, code, standard, or measure; the root meaning in all these languages is 'reed'; see also the Romance-language ancestors of the English word
cane
.
[4]
[5]
[6]
[
citation needed
]
In the fourth century, the
First Council of Nicaea
(325) calls canons the disciplinary measures of the church: the term canon, καν?ν, means in Greek, a rule. There is a very early distinction between the rules enacted by the church and the legislative measures taken by the state called
leges
, Latin for laws.
[7]
In the
Catholic Church
,
canon law
is the system of laws and legal principles made and enforced by the
church's hierarchical authorities
to regulate its external organization and government and to order and direct the activities of Catholics toward the mission of the church.
[10]
It was the first modern Western
legal system
[11]
and is the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West.
[12]
[13]
In the
Latin Church
, positive ecclesiastical laws, based directly or indirectly upon immutable divine law or
natural law
, derive formal authority in the case of universal laws from the supreme legislator (i.e., the
Supreme Pontiff
), who possesses the totality of legislative, executive, and judicial power in his person,
[14]
while particular laws derive formal authority from a legislator inferior to the supreme legislator. The actual subject material of the canons is not just doctrinal or moral in nature, but all-encompassing of the human condition,
[15]
and therefore extending beyond
what is taken as revealed truth
.
The
Catholic Church
also includes the main five rites (groups) of churches which are in full union with the
Holy See
and the Latin Church:
- Alexandrian Rite
Churches which include the
Coptic Catholic Church
,
Eritrean Catholic Church
, and
Ethiopian Catholic Church
.
- West Syriac Rite
which includes the
Maronite Church
,
Syriac Catholic Church
and the
Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
.
- Armenian Rite
Church which includes the
Armenian Catholic Church
.
- Byzantine Rite
Churches which include the
Albanian Greek Catholic Church
,
Belarusian Greek Catholic Church
,
Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church
,
Greek Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia
,
Greek Byzantine Catholic Church
,
[16]
Hungarian Greek Catholic Church
,
Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
,
Macedonian Greek Catholic Church
,
Melkite Greek Catholic Church
,
Romanian Greek Catholic Church
,
Russian Greek Catholic Church
,
Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church
,
Slovak Greek Catholic Church
and
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
.
- East Syriac Rite
Churches which includes the
Chaldean Catholic Church
and
Syro-Malabar Church
.
All of these church groups are in full communion with the Supreme Pontiff and are subject to the
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches
.
History, sources of law, and codifications
edit
Image of pages from the
Decretum
of
Burchard of Worms
, an 11th-century book of canon law
The
Catholic Church
has what is claimed to be the oldest continuously functioning internal legal system in
Western Europe
,
[17]
much later than
Roman law
but predating the evolution of modern European
civil law
traditions. What some might describe as "canons" adopted by the
Apostles
at the
Council of Jerusalem
in the first century would later be developed into a highly complex legal system encapsulating not just norms of the
New Testament
, but some elements of the
Hebrew
(
Old Testament
),
Roman
,
Visigothic
,
Saxon
, and
Celtic legal traditions
.
The history of Latin canon law can be divided into four periods: the
jus antiquum
, the
jus novum
, the
jus novissimum
and the
Code of Canon Law
.
[18]
In relation to the Code, history can be divided into the
jus vetus
(all law before the Code) and the
jus novum
(the law of the Code, or
jus codicis
).
[18]
The canon law of the Eastern Catholic Churches, which had developed some different disciplines and practices, underwent its own process of codification, resulting in the
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches
promulgated in 1990 by
Pope John Paul II
.
[19]
Catholic canon law as legal system
edit
Roman Catholic canon law is a fully developed legal system, with all the necessary elements: courts, lawyers, judges, a fully articulated legal code,
[20]
principles of legal interpretation, and coercive penalties, though it lacks civilly-binding force in most secular jurisdictions. One example where conflict between secular and canon law occurred was in the English legal system, as well as systems, such as the U.S., that
derived from it
. Here criminals could apply for the
benefit of clergy
. Being in holy orders, or fraudulently claiming to be, meant that criminals could opt to be tried by
ecclesiastical
rather than secular courts. The ecclesiastical courts were generally more lenient. Under the
Tudors
, the scope of clerical benefit was steadily reduced by
Henry VII
,
Henry VIII
, and
Elizabeth I
. The papacy disputed secular authority over priests' criminal offenses. The benefit of clergy was systematically removed from English legal systems over the next 200 years, although it still occurred in South Carolina in
1827
.
[
citation needed
]
In English Law, the use of this mechanism, which by that point was a
legal fiction
used for first offenders, was abolished by the
Criminal Law Act 1827
.
The academic degrees in Catholic canon law are the J.C.B. (
Juris Canonici Baccalaureatus
, Bachelor of Canon Law, normally taken as a graduate degree), J.C.L. (
Juris Canonici Licentiatus
,
Licentiate of Canon Law
) and the J.C.D. (
Juris Canonici Doctor
,
Doctor of Canon Law
). Because of its specialized nature, advanced degrees in civil law or theology are normal prerequisites for the study of canon law.
Much of Catholic canon law's legislative style was adapted from the Roman
Code of Justinian
. As a result, Roman ecclesiastical courts tend to follow the
Roman Law
style of continental Europe with some variation, featuring collegiate panels of judges and an investigative form of proceeding, called "
inquisitorial
", from the Latin "inquirere", to enquire. This is in contrast to the
adversarial
form of proceeding found in the common law system of English and U.S. law, which features such things as juries and single judges.
The institutions and practices of Catholic canon law paralleled the legal development of much of Europe, and consequently, both modern
civil law
and
common law
bear the influences of canon law. As Edson Luiz Sampel, a Brazilian expert in Catholic canon law, says, canon law is contained in the genesis of various institutes of civil law, such as the law in continental Europe and Latin American countries. Indirectly, canon law has significant influence in contemporary society.
[21]
Catholic Canonical jurisprudential theory
generally follows the principles of
Aristotelian
-
Thomistic
legal philosophy
.
[17]
While the term "law" is never explicitly defined in the Catholic Code of Canon Law,
[22]
the
Catechism of the Catholic Church
cites
Aquinas in defining law
as "an ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by the one who is in charge of the community"
[23]
and reformulates it as "a rule of conduct enacted by competent authority for the sake of the common good".
[24]
Code for the Eastern Churches
edit
The law of the
Eastern Catholic Churches
in full communion with the Roman papacy was in much the same state as that of the Latin Church before 1917; much more diversity in legislation existed in the various Eastern Catholic Churches. Each had its own special law, in which custom still played an important part. One major difference in Eastern Europe however, specifically in the Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, was in regards to divorce. Divorce started to slowly be allowed in specific instances such as adultery being committed, abuse, abandonment, impotence, and barrenness being the primary justifications for divorce. Eventually, the church began to allow remarriage to occur (for both spouses) post-divorce.
[2]
In 1929 Pius XI informed the Eastern Churches of his intention to work out a Code for the whole of the Eastern Church. The
publication of these Codes
for the Eastern Churches regarding the law of persons was made between 1949 through 1958
[25]
but finalized nearly 30 years later.
[7]
The first
Code of Canon Law (1917)
was exclusively for the
Latin Church
, with application to the Eastern Churches only "in cases which pertain to their very nature".
[26]
After the
Second Vatican Council
(1962 - 1965), the Vatican produced the
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches
which became the first code of Eastern Catholic Canon Law.
[27]
Eastern Orthodox Church
edit
The
Eastern Orthodox Church
, principally through the work of 18th-century
Athonite
monastic scholar
Nicodemus the Hagiorite
, has compiled canons and commentaries upon them in a work known as the
P?dalion
(
Greek
:
Πηδ?λιον
, 'Rudder'), so named because it is meant to "steer" the church in her discipline. The dogmatic determinations of the Councils are to be applied rigorously since they are considered to be essential for the church's unity and the faithful preservation of the Gospel.
[28]
In the
Church of England
, the
ecclesiastical courts
that formerly decided many matters such as disputes relating to marriage, divorce, wills, and defamation, still have jurisdiction of certain church-related matters (e.g. discipline of clergy, alteration of church property, and issues related to churchyards). Their separate status dates back to the 12th century when the
Normans
split them off from the mixed secular/religious county and local courts used by the Saxons. In contrast to the other courts of England, the law used in ecclesiastical matters is at least partially a
civil law
system, not
common law
, although heavily governed by parliamentary statutes. Since the
Reformation
, ecclesiastical courts in England have been royal courts. The teaching of canon law at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge was abrogated by
Henry VIII
; thereafter practitioners in the
ecclesiastical courts
were trained in
civil law
, receiving a
Doctor of Civil Law
(D.C.L.) degree from
Oxford
, or a Doctor of Laws (
LL.D.
) degree from
Cambridge
. Such lawyers (called "doctors" and "civilians") were centered at "
Doctors Commons
", a few streets south of
St Paul's Cathedral
in London, where they monopolized
probate
, matrimonial, and
admiralty
cases until their jurisdiction was removed to the
common law
courts in the mid-19th century.
Other churches in the
Anglican Communion
around the world (e.g., the
Episcopal Church in the United States
and the
Anglican Church of Canada
) still function under their own private systems of canon law.
In 2002 a Legal Advisors Consultation meeting at Canterbury concluded:
(1) There are principles of canon law common to the churches within the Anglican Communion; (2) Their existence can be factually established; (3) Each province or church contributes through its own legal system to the principles of canon law common within the Communion; (4) these principles have strong persuasive authority and are fundamental to the self-understanding of each of the member churches; (5) These principles have a living force, and contain within themselves the possibility for further development; and (6) The existence of the principles both demonstrates and promotes unity in the Communion.
[29]
In Presbyterian and Reformed churches, canon law is known as "practice and procedure" or "church order", and includes the church's laws respecting its government, discipline, legal practice, and worship.
Roman canon law had been criticized by the Presbyterians as early as 1572 in the
Admonition to Parliament
. The protest centered on the standard defense that canon law could be retained so long as it did not contradict the civil law. According to Polly Ha, the Reformed church government refuted this, claiming that the bishops had been enforcing canon law for 1500 years.
[30]
The
Book of Concord
is the historic
doctrinal statement
of the
Lutheran Church
, consisting of ten
credal
documents recognized as authoritative in
Lutheranism
since the 16th century.
[31]
However, the Book of Concord is a confessional document (stating orthodox belief) rather than a book of ecclesiastical rules or discipline, like canon law. Each Lutheran national church establishes its own system of church order and discipline, though these are referred to as "canons".
United Methodist Church
edit
The Book of Discipline contains the laws, rules, policies, and guidelines for The United Methodist Church. Its latest edition was published in 2016.
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