A nomocanon ( gr, Νομοκανών, ; from the Greek 'law' and 'a rule') is a collection of

ecclesiastical law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , 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 th ...

, consisting of the elements from both the civil law and the

canon law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , 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 th ...

. Nomocanons form part of the canon law of the

Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of th ...

(through the

Eastern Catholic canon law The Eastern Catholic canon law is the law of the 23 Catholic ''sui juris'' (autonomous) particular churches of the Eastern Catholic tradition. Eastern Catholic canon law includes both the common tradition among all Eastern Catholic Churches, now ...

) and of the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

Byzantine nomocanons

Nomocanon of John Scholasticus

The first nomocanon, in the sixth century, is ascribed, though without certainty, to John Scholasticus, whose canons it utilizes and completes. He had drawn up (about 550) a purely canonical compilation in 50 titles, and later composed an extract from the

Justinian Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...

Novellae In Roman law, a novel ( la, novella constitutio, "new decree"; gr, νεαρά, neara) is a new decree or edict, in other words a new law. The term was used from the fourth century AD onwards and was specifically used for laws issued after the publi ...

in 87 chapters that relate the ecclesiastical matters. To each of the 50 titles was added the texts of the imperial laws on the same subject, with 21 additional chapters, nearly all borrowed from John's 87 chapters. Thus the Nomocanon of John Scholasticus was made.

Nomocanon in 14 titles

The second nomocanon dates from the reign of the Byzantine

Emperor Heraclius Heraclius ( grc-gre, Ἡράκλειος, Hērákleios; c. 575 – 11 February 641), was Eastern Roman emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the exarch of Africa, led a revolt ...

(610–641), at which time Latin was replaced by Greek as the official language of the imperial laws. It was made through the fusion of the ''Collectio tripartita'' (collection of Justinian's imperial law) and '' Canonic syntagma'' (ecclesiastical canons). Afterwards, this collection would be known as ''Nomocanon in 14 titles''.

Nomocanon of Photios

The Nomocanon in 14 titles nomocanon was long held in esteem and passed into the Russian Church, but it was by degrees supplanted by the Nomocanon of Photios in 883. It contained the Nomocanon in 14 titles, with the addition of 102 canons of Trullan Council, 17 canons of the Council of Constantinople of 861, and three canons substituted by Photios for those of the Council of Constantinople of 869. The Nomocanon in 14 titles was completed with the more recent imperial laws. This whole collection was commentated about 1170 by Theodore Balsamon, Greek Patriarch of Antioch residing at Constantinople. The Nomocanon of Photios supplemented the '' Pedalion'' ( gr, Πηδάλιον 'rudder'), a sort of

Corpus Juris The legal term ''Corpus Juris'' means "body of law". It was originally used by the Romans for several of their collections of all the laws in a certain field—see ''Corpus Juris Civilis''—and was later adopted by medieval jurists in assembling ...

of the Eastern Orthodox Church, printed in 1800 by

Patriarch Neophytos VII Neophytus VII or Neophytos VII (Greek: Νεόφυτος Ζʹ; died after 1801) was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople during the periods 1789–1794 and 1798–1801. Biography Neophytus was born in Smyrna. He studied in the Evangelical Schoo ...

. The Nomocanon of Photios retained in the law of the Eastern Orthodox Church and it was included in the ''Syntagma'', published by Rallis and Potlis (Athens, 1852–1859).

St. Sava's Nomocanon

The Nomocanon of Saint Sava, or in Serbian (), was the first Serbian constitution and the highest code in the

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...

; it was finished in 1219. This legal act was well developed. St. Sava's Nomocanon was the compilation of civil law, based on

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...

and

, based on

ecumenical councils An ecumenical council, also called general council, is a meeting of bishops and other church authorities to consider and rule on questions of Christian doctrine, administration, discipline, and other matters in which those entitled to vote ar ...

. Its basic purpose was to organize functioning of the young Serbian kingdom and the Serbian church. During the

Nemanjić dynasty The House of Nemanjić ( sr-Cyrl, Немањић, Немањићи; Nemanjić, Nemanjići, ) was the most prominent dynasty of Serbia in the Middle Ages. This princely, royal, and later imperial house produced twelve Serbian monarchs, who rul ...

(1166–1371) Serbian medieval state was flourishing in the spheres of politics, religion and culture. As the state developed, also the industry developed, so the law had to regulate various number of relations. Therefore, with the development of economy, Roman law was taken. In that time Serbia was not a tsarish

empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

, so its ruler could not create code of laws, which would regulate the relations in the state and church. Serbian rulers reigned with single legal acts and decrees. In order to overcome this problem and organize legal system, after acquiring religious independence, Saint Sava finished his in 1219. The was accepted in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. It was printed in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in the 17th century. So, Roman-Byzantine law was

transplanting In agriculture and gardening, transplanting or replanting is the technique of moving a plant from one location to another. Most often this takes the form of starting a plant from seed in optimal conditions, such as in a greenhouse or protected Pl ...

among East Europe through the . In Serbia, it was considered as the code of the divine law and it was implemented into Dušan's Code ( sr, Dušanov zakonik). During the Serbian Revolution, in 1804 the priest

Mateja Nenadović Mateja ( sr, Матеја) is a given name, variant of the Greek given name ''Mathias'' ( Matthew). In Serbian, it's a masculine name, while in Croatian and Slovene, it's a feminine name. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Mateja A ...

established the Nomocanon of Saint Sava as the code of the liberated Serbia. It was also implemented in Serbian civil code in 1844. The is still used in the

as the highest church code.

East Syriac tradition

Nomocanons of the

Church of the East The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...

by author are: *

Ishoʿbokht Ishoʿbokht (late 7th or late 8th century) was a Persian legal scholar, Christian theologian and philosopher. He is known through his writings and a few references to them. His dates are not known precisely and little can be said of his life other t ...

(8th century), author of the ''Composition on the Laws'' (Persian) *

Gabriel of Basra Gabriel of Baṣra (fl. 884–893) was a bishop and jurist of the Church of the East. Little is known of Gabriel's life other than that he was metropolitan of Baṣra in 884 and 893. Sometime in the last quarter of the ninth century, he compiled ...

(late 9th century), author of the ''Collection of Judgements'' (Syriac) *

Eliya ibn ʿUbaid Eliya ibn ʿUbaid (), also called Īlīyā al-Jawharī, was a theologian, philosopher, canonist and chronographer of the Church of the East. He served as the bishop of Jerusalem from 878 or 879 until 893 and then as the archbishop of Damascus. He ...

(early 10th century), author of the ''Nomocanon Arabicus'' (Arabic) *

Ibn al-Ṭayyib Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib (died 1043), known by the ''nisba'' al-ʿIrāqī and in medieval Latin as Abulpharagius Abdalla Benattibus, was a prolific writer, priest and polymath of the Church of the East. He practised medicine in ...

(11th century), author of the ''Law of Christianity'' (Arabic) *

ʿAbdishoʿ bar Brikha Abdisho bar Berika or Ebedjesu ( syc, ܥܒܕܝܫܘܥ ܕܨܘܒܐ) (died 1318), also known as Mar Odisho or St. Odisho in English, was a Syriac writer. He was born in Nusaybin. Abdisho was first bishop of Shiggar (Sinjar) and the province of Bet 'Ar ...

(d. 1318), author of the ''Nomokanon'' (Syriac)

References

Sources

The entry of the Slavs into ChristendomThe Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century
* {{Catholic, wstitle=Nomocanon Canon law of the Eastern Orthodox Church Catholic Church legal terminology Canon law of the Catholic Church sr:Законоправило