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Canon law (from Ancient Greek: κανών, kanon, 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.
In canon law, a canon designates some law promulgated by a synod, an ecumenical council, or an individual bishop. [ 2 ] The word "canon" comes from the Greek kanon , which in its original usage denoted a straight rod that was later the instrument used by architects and artificers as a measuring stick for making straight lines.
The jurisprudence of canon law is the complex of legal principles and traditions within which canon law operates, while the philosophy, theology, and fundamental theory of Catholic canon law are the areas of philosophical, theological, and legal scholarship dedicated to providing a theoretical basis for canon law as a legal system and as true law.
The Catholic Church utilizes the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West, [1] 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. [2]
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. Canon law was not a finished product from the beginning, but rather a gradual growth. This is especially true of the earlier Christian centuries.
Catholic canon law also lays down rules for licit, also called lawful, placing of the act, along with criteria to determine its validity or invalidity. Valid but illicit or valid but illegal ( Latin : valida sed illicita ) is a description applied in the Catholic Church to describe either an unauthorized celebration of a sacrament or an ...
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In the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the word "regulars" was officially defined as those who have made their vows in a "religion" (what in the 1983 Code is called a religious institute). [8] The technical juridical term "regular" does not appear, as such, in the current 1983 Code of Canon Law, which does, however, use the phrase "canons regular". [9]