§ 38. General Survey

II. The Period up to the Publication of the Basic Canonical Collection of the Orthodox Church (883).

After the proclamation of the Edict of Milan, the church becomes free within the Greco-Roman state, and avails itself of this freedom in order to organize itself properly and to establish its discipline. By its richly developed legislative labor, aided by state legislation, the church in this period succeeds in fully organizing itself and consolidating its discipline. Alongside the development of legislative work, the work of codifying the ordinances of that legislation also develops; and whereas from the first period we have not a single collection of formal legislative provisions, this period furnishes us many such collections, of which—leaving aside their content—some are so exemplary in their composition that later centuries have been able to accomplish nothing better.

All the canonical collections of this period are divided into three kinds: 1) collections exclusively canonical, in which are contained only the provisions of church legislation; 2) church-civil collections, in which are contained the provisions of civil legislation on church affairs; and 3) nomocanons, that is, collections in which are contained the provisions of both church and civil legislation. We shall here mention them in order, first the first, then the second, and finally the third kind. Of the first kind of collection, some were prepared in the East and some in the West, and we shall speak of them in this order.