Collection of Canons

The "Collection of Canons" was an early catalog of Byzantine Church legislation compiled by John Scholasticus around 545 CE. This compilation organized imperial ecclesiastical statutes with those from the theologian Basil of Cappadocia. John Scholasticus, later Patriarch of Constantinople, was an ecclesiastical jurist whose systematic classification of Byzantine legal codes formed the basis for Greek Orthodox Church canon law.1

A canon, derived from a word meaning "measuring rod," signifies a norm or rule of faith. In the context of the church, canons are statements concerning faith or morals proclaimed by a church, or a system of rules of conduct. The "Collection of Canons" was a significant step in codifying church law, influencing later legal texts like the nomocanon, which combined ecclesiastical legislation with civil laws.2345