''Syntagma Canonum'' is a

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 ...

collection made in 1335 by Matthew Blastares, a Greek monk about whose life nothing certain is known. The collector aimed at reducing canon law to a handier and more accessible form than it appeared in the

Nomocanon A nomocanon ( gr, Νομοκανών, ; from the Greek 'law' and 'a rule') is a collection of ecclesiastical law, consisting of the elements from both the civil law and the canon law. Nomocanons form part of the canon law of the Eastern Cathol ...

Photius Photios I ( el, Φώτιος, ''Phōtios''; c. 810/820 – 6 February 893), also spelled PhotiusFr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., & Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materia ...

, and to give a more comprehensive presentation than the epitomes and synopses of earlier writers such as Stephen (fifth century), Aristenus (1160), Arsenius (1255), et al. The author arranged his matter in

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a s ...

ical order. He made 24 general divisions, each marked off by a letter of the

Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as ...

. These sections he subdivided into 303 titles, themselves distinguished by letters; for example, the third section contains such topics as: ''peri gamou'' (about marriage), ''peri gynaikon'' (about women), etc. The titles ordinarily treat of the

civil law Civil law may refer to: * Civil law (common law), the part of law that concerns private citizens and legal persons * Civil law (legal system), or continental law, a legal system originating in continental Europe and based on Roman law ** Private la ...

(''nomoi politikoi''), as well as

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 ...

. Some titles however are purely ecclesiastical, others purely civil. The church ordinances are quoted from previous collections, especially from the

(883), while the extracts from the civil law are for the most part transcribed without any reference to their origin. The compilation soon came into general use among the

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the t ...

, and preserved its authority even under Ottoman rule. A translation into Serbian followed close upon its first publication. It even worked its way into the political life of the Serbian people through an abridgment which Serbian

Emperor Dušan An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

appended to his code of laws (1349). From this the purely ecclesiastical enactments were excluded, but the civil law contained in the ''Syntagma'' was reproduced whenever adaptable to the social condition of the people. In the sixteenth century the ''Syntagma Canonum'' was translated into Bulgarian; in the seventeenth century into

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

References

{{Authority control 1335 books Byzantine law Law books 14th century in the Byzantine Empire 1330s in the Byzantine Empire Canon law of the Eastern Orthodox Church