Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils: Translation and Commentary
Overview
Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils: Translation and Commentary covers the disciplinary decrees enacted by the Catholic Church in her general councils up to and exclusive of the Council of Trent. H. J. Schroeder provides the original texts, English translations and commentary on the historical background of the decrees. “For, after all, the full scope and import of a conciliar decision, whether of a dogmatic or disciplinary nature, can be grasped only when studied in the light of the conditions and forces that produced it.” The work includes selected canons from the first seven councils (the full text of these councils can found in volume 14 of the Early Church Fathers Series), and all the canons from the great Medieval Councils. It also includes selected canons from the late medieval councils. The arrangement of the work is the same throughout. First Schroeder provides a historical sketch of the council; this is followed by a digest of the decree, the decree itself (in both the Latin or Greek and English), and the commentary.
Top Highlights
“Originally ‘canon,’ from the Greek κανών, signified a straight rod or line, or more correctly, a ruler—the instrument used by architects and artificers for making straight lines. Among the ancient Greeks the term was variously applied, largely with a secondary meaning, yet always with the notion of straightness, fixity, norm, criterion.” (Page 1)
“The immediate occasion of its convocation was Arianism, which for a number of years had been creating a profound disturbance in the Church by its warfare against the divinity of Christ.” (Page 8)
“From the literal sense the term naturally passed into metaphorical use to express what served to regulate, fix, determine, or what might be called the setting or fixing of a standard or model, and thus it had its counterpart in the Latin regula and norma. In this sense the general rules or principles of grammar and rhetoric were called κανόνες; so also were the chief epochs of history by means of which intermediate dates were determined. The grammarians of Alexandria characterized as κανών the collection of classic Greek authors, whose works had been acknowledged as standards, that is, types and models of excellence.” (Page 1)
“the canon of the Church’ (ὁ κανὼν τῆς ἐκκλησίας)” (Page 3)
“A general council does not represent the teaching Church till the pope, the visible head of the Church, has given his approval. Without such approval a council is an acephalous entity and its decisions have not the binding force of laws for the whole Church. Such confirmation constitutes the very life of conciliar decrees, whether of faith or discipline, and the authority which the pope exercises in this respect, being the highest, cannot be delegated.” (Page 5)
- Title: Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils: Translation and Commentary
- Author: H. J. Schroeder
- Series: Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils
- Publisher: B. Herder
- Print Publication Date: 1937
- Logos Release Date: 2012
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Catholic Church › Discipline; Councils and synods, Ecumenical
- Resource ID: LLS:DISCPLNDECREES
- Resource Type: text.monograph.confessional-document
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:36:00Z