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What Does Canon Law Mean?

by Courtney Palmbush

Overview

What Does Canon Law Mean?

Canon Law refers to a legal system that incorporates divine law into its codes, and governs both institutional and individual affairs within the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican churches. Originating in the first century and still in use today, canon law is the oldest system of law in Western Europe.
"Canon"

The word "canon" is derived from Greek and Hebrew words indicating a group governed by a common rule.

Foundations of Canon Law

Christianity became the official religion of Rome in the fourth century, and as such, it became a formal department of state. Following the existing Roman imperial model of subdivision, Christian governance was divided up into province, diocese, and parish, and maintained from an urban center. Thus, unsurprisingly, the earliest canon and ecclesiastical laws were based on Roman law. The church adapted Roman laws to its needs and officially recorded them so as to provide precedents for later situations concerning the governance of the Church and its community.
Canon Law in the Middle Ages

As the church grew and developed, so did canon law. Canon law governed matters ranging from administration of churches and monasteries to domestic matters affecting individual parishioners. Whereas earliest canon law was developed by small groups and councils, over time a more hierarchical structure prevailed, with central judicial power resting with the Pope; by the Middle Ages, the Pope's ruling on a matter was the final word.
Gratian's _Decretum_

A major event in the history of canon law was the collation of laws by a twelfth-century Italian lawyer named Gratian. He created a compilation known as the Concordia discordantium canonum, that is, the Concord of Discordant Canons, or the Decretum, in which he attempted to make all previous canon laws to cohere with one another by applying the scholastic method (a technique combining Christian, Aristotelian and Platonic philosophies). The Decretum was the standard text for canon law studies up until 1917.
Canon Law Today

The first Code of Canon Law was created under the order of Pope Pius X so as to provide a uniform and systematized collection of laws; it went into effect in 1918. In 1959, Pope John XXIII spearheaded a project to modernize the Code of Canon Law. A Commission for Revision was appointed in 1963, and the newly revised Code was completed, and promulgated in 1983. It is a single volume of nearly 300 pages and composed of 1,752 canons.