Collectio canonum Hibernensis

Last updated

Collectio canonum Hibernensis
Collectio Canonum Hibernensis Domkapitel zu Koln Codex 210 15v.jpg
Folio 15v of eighth-century manuscript 210 of the library at Cologne Cathedral, showing the first chapter of the second book titled De nomine presbiteri at the initial P
Also known asHibernensis, the Irish collection of canons
Author(s)Cú Chuimne of Iona and Ruben of Dairinis
Language medieval Latin
Dateca 725
Genrecanon law collection
Subjectchurch law, administration and discipline; theology

The Collectio canonum Hibernensis (English: Irish Collection of Canon law) (or Hib) is a systematic Latin collection of Continental canon law, scriptural and patristic excerpts, and Irish synodal and penitential decrees. Hib is thought to have been compiled by two Irish scholars working in the late 7th or 8th century, Cú Chuimne of Iona (died 747) and Ruben of Dairinis (died 725).

Overview

Age and manuscript tradition

Hib is one of the oldest systematic canon law collections in Europe. It was compiled in Ireland between 669 and 748. Its compilers are believed to have been Cú Chuimne of Iona (†747) and Ruben of Dairinis (†725). [1] The attribution of Hib to these two men is problematical, however, because it is based solely on a garbled colophon found in a ninth-century manuscript from Brittany with a Corbie and Saint-Germain provenance (now in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Lat. 12021). [2] The earliest manuscript witness, according to Rob Meens of Utrecht University, is an early eighth-century collection preserved in Copenhagen (KB 58); Meens in fact refers to the manuscript as a "forerunner" of the Hibernensis. [3] Several recensions of the collection may have circulated in the early Middle Ages, but the two main recensions (called A and B), containing between 65 and 69 books (the division of books varies between manuscripts), seem to date from an early stage of the collection's circulation. Hib circulated widely on the Continent in the eighth and ninth centuries, particularly in Brittany, [4] and had a particularly strong influence on Italian canonistic thought after the ninth century. [5] It may have played a role in the anointment of Pepin the Short as king of Francia in 751, on the advice of Vergilius of Salzburg. [6]

Contents

Beyond topics typically covered by canon law collections, Hib touches on prayer, consecrated places, martyrs, the ‘substances of men’, blessings, and the soul; indeed, certain chapters often verge on essays on morality. Maurice P. Sheehy said of Hib, ‘as a single document, [it] is probably the most ambitious endeavour to codify Christian life of all the medieval canonical compilations.’ [7] A relatively small portion of the work comprises excerpts from ancient canons and decretals; far more common are citations of Scripture and the Church Fathers―Origen, Jerome, Augustine, Pope Gregory I, and Gregory Nazianzenus being most prominent among these. Its use of Greek Fathers as sources for canon law has been called ‘unique’. [8] Not including quotations inside excerpted patristic writers, Hib contains about 1,000 quotations of Scripture, two-thirds of which come from the Old Testament. [9]

Thomas Charles-Edwards considered the methods by which the compiler(s) of this collection organized their material: "the Hibernensis both contains and relies on exegesis to a far greater extent than do such collections as those of Dionysius Exiguus". [10] The compiler, or ‘exegete’ as Charles-Edwards calls him, was interested not only in presenting decisions, but in finding answers to questions on morality; it was the compiler’s own moral preoccupations, as well as his own interpretation of his sources that determined the shape and content of the collection. [11] The compiler’s use of testimonia and exempla to prove a rule sometimes led him to take a ‘dialectical’ approach to legal questions, in which he would present opposing rules on a single topic and attempt some sort of crude reconciliation, though usually this reconciliation is only ever implied. For some scholars, this has qualified Hib as something of a summa discordantium. [12]

The exegetical and essaic qualities of Hib were signalled by Gabriel le Bras when he argued that Hib is ‘more than a canonical collection, but a repository of scriptural and patristic texts on discipline, which the author accepted as the principal sources of the law. This characteristic of the Hibernensis quite naturally results in its embracing a much wider domain than the other collections: not only the entire domain of the ecclesiastical institution, but also the realm of the social and spiritual life.’

Hib was not the only form of law available in medieval Ireland. A secular law, more commonly known as the Brehon Laws, existed and is often at variance with Hib, although perhaps more surprising is their tendency to overlap.

Sources for the Collection Canonum Hibernensis

Hib was an attempt to make available diverse authorities for use by Canon Jurists. Among the sources included are:

Editions

Addenda and Corrigenda to the Editions

  1. Wasserschleben, 1874
    • p. 2 note 12: FOR 2 Timoth. READ 1 Timoth.
    • p. 64 lines 6–7: FOR contrixisse READ constrinxisse
    • p. 105 lines 15–16: FOR angelio READ angelo
    • p. 134 line 3: AFTER Isaac filio suo ADD Isaac servavit hereditatem Iacob. Item: Iacob servavit partem filio suo Ioseph
    • p. 142 lines 22–24: FOR Si debes aliquid fratri non habenti, quod reddat tibi, sume pignus ab eo, et custodi, ut accipias, quod debeas READ Si debet tibi aliquid frater tuus et non habet, quod reddat tibi, sume pignus ab eo, et custodi, ut accipias, quod debet
    • p. 200 line 17: FOR malitia READ malitiam
    • p. 205 line 19: FOR occidisse READ accidisse
    • p. 209 line 13: FOR item in habitu READ item: Debent esse in habitu
    • p. 233 line 12: FOR dicitur ut READ dicitur: tolle calciamenta locus enim in quo et reliqua. Ita et Iosue ut
  2. Wasserschleben, 1885
    • p. 47 line 25: FOR evangelico READ evangelio
    • p. 105 line 12: FOR partribus READ patribus
    • p. 112 line 22: FOR Isaac Iacob READ Isaac servavit hereditatem Iacob
    • p. 204 line 2: FOR dicitur ut READ dicitur: tolle calciamenta locus enim in quo et reliqua. Ita et Iosue ut
  3. Flechner, 2019
    • p. 206 line 20: ADD cf. Gen. 9:25
    • p. 207 line 1: ADD cf. Gen. 25:6
    • p. 282 line 2: ADD cf. Jerome, Ep. 53 (CSEL 54/1, p. 448)
    • p. 307 line 10: ADD cf. Num. 10:29–32
    • p. 460 line 9: FOR apostolus READ apostolos
    • p. 460 line 15: FOR Hiromonus READ Hironimus / Hieronimus (as in app. crit.)
    • p. 820 line 8: FOR apostle READ apostles
    • p. 983 line 1: FOR ennarationes READ enarrationes

Related Research Articles

Pseudo-Isidore is the conventional name for the unknown Carolingian-era author behind an extensive corpus of influential forgeries. Pseudo-Isidore's main object was to provide accused bishops with an array of legal protections amounting to de facto immunity from trial and conviction; to secure episcopal autonomy within the diocese; and to defend the integrity of church property. The forgeries accomplished this goal, in part, by aiming to expand the legal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome.

De duodecim abusivis saeculi, also titled simply De duodecim abusivis, is a Hiberno-Latin treatise on social and political morality written by an anonymous Irish author between 630 and 700, or between 630 and 650. During the Middle Ages, the work was very popular throughout Europe.

<i>Decretum Gratiani</i> 12th century anthology of canon law

The Decretum Gratiani, also known as the Concordia discordantium canonum or Concordantia discordantium canonum or simply as the Decretum, is a collection of canon law compiled and written in the 12th century as a legal textbook by the jurist known as Gratian. It forms the first part of the collection of six legal texts, which together became known as the Corpus Juris Canonici. It was used as the main source of law by canonists of the Roman Catholic Church until the Decretals, promulgated by Pope Gregory IX in 1234, obtained legal force, after which it was the cornerstone of the Corpus Juris Canonici, in force until 1917.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apostolic Canons</span> 4th-century Syrian ancient church order

The Apostolic Canons, also called Apostolic canons, Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles, or Canons of the Holy Apostles, is a 4th-century Syrian Christian text. It is an Ancient Church Order, a collection of ancient ecclesiastical canons concerning the government and discipline of the Early Christian Church, allegedly written by the Apostles. This text is an appendix to the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions. Like the other Ancient Church Orders, the Apostolic Canons uses a pseudepigraphic form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burchard of Worms</span> Bishop (c. 950/965 – 1025)

Burchard of Worms was the bishop of the Imperial City of Worms, in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the author of a canon law collection of twenty books known as the Decretum, Decretum Burchardi, or Decretorum libri viginti.

Cú Chuimne was a monk and scholar of Iona. Cú Chuimne, along with Ruben of Dairinis, was responsible for the great compendium known as Collectio canonum Hibernensis, which is the first systematic western collection of canon law.

Ruben of Dairinis was an Irish scholar. He was, along with Cú Chuimne of Iona, responsible for the great compendium known as Collectio canonum Hibernensis.

The Corpus Juris Canonici is a collection of significant sources of the Canon law of the Catholic Church that was applicable to the Latin Church. It was replaced by the 1917 Code of Canon Law which went into effect in 1918. The 1917 Code was later replaced by the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the codification of canon law currently in effect for the Latin Church.

Collections of ancient canons contain collected bodies of canon law that originated in various documents, such as papal and synodal decisions, and that can be designated by the generic term of canons.

The (Pactum) Ludovicianum was an agreement reached in 817 between the Emperor Louis the Pious and Pope Paschal I concerning the government of central Italy and the relation of the Papal States to the Carolingian Empire. The text of the Ludovicianum is preserved mainly in eleventh- and twelfth-century manuscripts of canon law and has been reconstructed by modern editors. Certain sections of the Ludovicianum are thought to be confirmations of agreements made between Louis's father, Charlemagne, and Pope Hadrian I during the former's trips to Rome in 781 and 787.

<i>Collectio canonum quadripartita</i> Medieval canon law collection

The Collectio canonum quadripartita is an early medieval canon law collection, written around the year 850 in the ecclesiastical province of Reims. It consists of four books. The Quadripartita is an episcopal manual of canon and penitential law. It was a popular source for knowledge of penitential and canon law in France, England and Italy in the ninth and tenth centuries, notably influencing Regino's enormously important Libri duo de synodalibus causis. Even well into the thirteenth century the Quadripartita was being copied by scribes and quoted by canonists who were compiling their own collections of canon law.

<i>Libellus responsionum</i> Papal letter

The Libellus responsionum is a papal letter written in 601 by Pope Gregory I to Augustine of Canterbury in response to several of Augustine's questions regarding the nascent church in Anglo-Saxon England. The Libellus was reproduced in its entirety by Bede in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, whence it was transmitted widely in the Middle Ages, and where it is still most often encountered by students and historians today. Before it was ever transmitted in Bede's Historia, however, the Libellus circulated as part of several different early medieval canon law collections, often in the company of texts of a penitential nature.

Jus antiquum is a period in the legal history of the Catholic Church, spanning from the beginning of the church to the Decretum of Gratian, i.e. from A.D. 33 to around 1150. In the first 10 centuries of the church, there was a great proliferation of canonical collections, mostly assembled by private individuals and not by church authority as such.

<i>Collectio canonum Wigorniensis</i> Medieval canon law collection

The Collectio canonum Wigorniensis is a medieval canon law collection originating in southern England around the year 1005. It exists in multiple recensions, the earliest of which — "Recension A" — consists of just over 100 canons drawn from a variety of sources, most predominantly the ninth-century Frankish collection of penitential and canon law known as the Collectio canonum quadripartita. The author of Recension A is currently unknown. Other recensions also exist, slightly later in date than the first. These later recensions are extensions and augmentations of Recension A, and are known collectively as "Recension B". These later recensions all bear the unmistakable mark of having been created by Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester and archbishop of York, possibly sometime around the year 1008, though some of them may have been compiled as late as 1023, the year of Wulfstan's death. The collection treats a range of ecclesiastical and lay subjects, such as clerical discipline, church administration, lay and clerical penance, public and private penance, as well as a variety of spiritual, doctrinal and catechistic matters. Several "canons" in the collection verge on the character of sermons or expository texts rather than church canons in the traditional sense; but nearly every element in the collection is prescriptive in nature, and concerns the proper ordering of society in a Christian polity.

The Catholic Church utilizes the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West, much later than Roman law but predating the evolution of modern European civil law traditions. The history of Latin canon law can be divided into four periods: the jus antiquum, the jus novum, the jus novissimum and the Code of Canon Law. In relation to the Code, history can be divided into the jus vetus and the jus novum. Eastern canon law developed separately.

<i>Paenitentiale Ecgberhti</i>

The Paenitentiale Ecgberhti is an early medieval penitential handbook composed around 740, possibly by Archbishop Ecgberht of York.

<i>Paenitentiale Theodori</i>

The Paenitentiale Theodori is an early medieval penitential handbook based on the judgements of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury. It exists in multiple versions, the fullest and historically most important of which is the U or Discipulus Umbrensium version, composed (probably) in Northumbria within approximately a decade or two after Theodore's death. Other early though far less popular versions are those known today as the Capitula Dacheriana, the Canones Gregorii, the Canones Basilienses, and the Canones Cottoniani, all of which were compiled before the Paenitentiale Umbrense probably in either Ireland and/or England during or shortly after Theodore's lifetime.

<i>Collectio canonum Quesnelliana</i>

The Collectio canonum Quesnelliana is a vast collection of canonical and doctrinal documents prepared (probably) in Rome sometime between 494 and (probably) 610. It was first identified by Pierre Pithou and first edited by Pasquier Quesnel in 1675, whence it takes its modern name. The standard edition used today is that prepared by Girolamo and Pietro Ballerini in 1757.

<i>Collectiones canonum Dionysianae</i>

The Collectiones canonum Dionysianae, also known as Collectio Dionysiana or Dionysiana Collectio, are the several collections of ancient canons prepared by a Scythian monk, Dionysius 'the humble' (exiguus). They include the Collectio conciliorum Dionysiana I, the Collectio conciliorum Dionysiana II, and the Collectio decretalium Dionysiana. They are of the utmost importance for the development of the canon law tradition in the West.

<i>Proverbia Grecorum</i> 7th-8th century Latin collection of proverbs

The Proverbia Grecorum is an anonymous Latin collection of proverbs compiled in the seventh or eighth century AD in the British Isles, probably in Ireland. Despite the name, it has no known Greek source. It was perhaps designed as a secular complement to the Hebrew Bible's Book of Proverbs.

References

  1. ↑ Charles-Edwards, ‘Construction’, 213 n. 7. For a summary of past arguments on the authorship of the Hibernensis, see Davies, ‘Isidorian texts’, 212–15.
  2. ↑ On the colophon see R. Thurneysen, ‘Zur irischen Kanonensammlung’, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie 6 (1907–08), 1–5; and on problems in accepting the authority of this colophon, see Dumville, ‘Transmission and use’, 86. For another consideration of the identities of Ruben and Cú Chuimne, including their possible political and ideological affiliations, see B. Jaski, ‘Cú Chuimne, Ruben, and the compilation of the Collectio canonum Hibernensis’, Peritia 14 (2000), 51–69.
  3. ↑ Meens, Rob (2000). "The Oldest Manuscript Witness of the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis". Peritia . 14: 1–19. doi:10.1484/J.Peri.3.393. ISSN   0332-1592.
  4. ↑ Mordek, ed., Kirchenrecht, 255–59; Reynolds, ‘Unity and diversity’; Dumville, ‘Transmission and use’; Flechner, Roy (2008). "Aspects of the Breton transmission of the Hibernensis" (PDF). Pecia. 12: 27–44. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 April 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  5. ↑ R. Reynolds, ‘Excerpta from the Collectio Hibernensisn three Vatican manuscripts’, Bulletin of medieval canon law n.s. 5 (1975), 1–9, who cites on p. 1 seminal work on the subject by Paul Fournier.
  6. ↑ Enright, M.J. Iona, Tara, and Soissons: The Origin of the Royal Anointing Ritual. (Arbeiten zur Frümittelalterforschung, 17) Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1985. Pp. ix, 198.
  7. ↑ Sheehy, ‘Celtic phenomenon’, 527.
  8. ↑ Davies, ‘Isidorian texts’, 212.
  9. ↑ M.P. Sheehy, ‘The Bible and the Collectio canonum Hibernensis’, in Irland und die Christenheit, eds Ní Chatháin and Richter, 277–83, at 281. Fournier-le Bras, Histoire, 63, counted around 500 biblical quotations.
  10. ↑ Charles-Edwards, ‘Construction’, 230.
  11. ↑ Charles-Edwards, ‘Construction’, 234–36.
  12. ↑ Charles-Edwards, ‘Construction’, 210. The term summa discordantium is Sheehy’s, ‘Celtic Phenomenon’, 527, on which see also Sheehy, ‘The Bible’, 277–78. For a discussion of the ideological implications of the ‘dialectical’ style of Hib—namely its relevance to the ‘nativising and internationalising tendencies within Irish Christianity’ in the seventh and eighth centuries—see Dumville, ‘Transmission and use’, 86.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.