The
Church of England, like the other autonomous member churches of the
Anglican Communion, has its own system of
canon law.
The principal body of canon law enacted since the Reformation is the ''Book of Canons'' approved by the
Convocations of Canterbury and York in 1604 and 1606 respectively. There are 141 canons in the collection, some of which reaffirm medieval prescriptions, while others depend on
Matthew Parker's ''Book of Advertisements'' and the
Thirty-nine Articles. They were drawn up in Latin by
Richard Bancroft
Richard Bancroft (1544 – 2 November 1610) was an English churchman, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1604 to 1610 and "chief overseer" of the King James Bible.
Life
Bancroft was born in September 1544 at Farnworth, now part of Widnes, Che ...
, Bishop of London, and only the Latin text is authoritative. They were published in separate Latin and English editions in 1604. A few, e.g. canon 37, were amended in the 19th century. A Canon Law Commission was appointed in 1939 to reconsider the matter of canon law in the Church of England: it held eight sessions between 1943 and 1947 and then issued a report which included a full set of new canons which were subsequently considered by Convocation.
[Cross, F. L., ed. (1957) ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church''. London: Oxford University Press; pp. 230-31]
The new Canons of the Church of England were promulged by the Convocations in 1964 (Canterbury) and 1969 (York), and replaced the whole of the 1604 Canons except the proviso to Canon 113 (which relates to Confession). The 7th edition, incorporating amendments made by the General Synod up to 2010, was published in 2012. An updated version is available online.
See also
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Canon law (Anglican Communion)
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Ecclesiastical Law Society
The Ecclesiastical Law Society is an organization based in the United Kingdom that "exists to promote the study of ecclesiastical and canon law particularly in the Church of England and those churches in communion with it." All are welcome to j ...
*''
Excommunicato interdictur omnis actus legitimus, ita quod agere non potest, nec aliquem convenire, licet ipse ab aliis possit conveniri''
References
Further reading
*Bullard, J. V., ed. (1934) ''Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical, 1604: Latin and English''. London: Faith Press
*Archbishops' Commission on Canon Law (1947) ''The Canon Law of the Church of England; being the report of the ... commission ... together with proposals for a revised body of canon law''. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
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External links
Canons of the Church of England: introductionCanons of the Church of England (complete text)Canons of the Church of England (7th edition)
Anglican theology and doctrine
English law
{{England-law-stub