THE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS Preface and Introduction

Edited from a variety of translations (mentioned in the preface) by H. R. Percival

THE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS Resources Online and in Print

Pages

Page 21

3. The "Book of Canons" by no means represents an authorized textus receptus, and after its publication, the Holy Synod itself not unfrequently introduced the Canons as given in the Slavonic edition of the "Kormchaja Kniga" into its edicts, and moreover recommended the Athenian Edition of the "Syntagma" for all the ecclesiastico-educational establishments. This opened the way for a new work, which, with the permission of the supreme ecclesiastical authority, was undertaken by the Moscow "Society of Amateurs of Spiritual Enlightenment." The announcement of this was made in No. 3 of the "Moscow Diocesan Church Gazette" of the year 1875, whilst in the same year in the January number of the Moscow Journal, "Lectures delivered in the Society of Amateurs of Spiritual Enlightenment," the "programe" of the edition itself was printed (pages 79-90 in the section devoted to bibliography). In criticism of it the Professor of Canonical Law in the University of Novorossiisk, Alexis Stepanovich Pavloff (who died on August 16, 1898, as Professor of the University of Moscow) wrote "Notes on the programme of an edition, in a Russian translation of the Canons of the Church with Commentaries" in the sixteenth volume of "Memoirs of the Imperial University of Novorossiisk" (Odessa, 1875), pages 1-17 of the Appendix (and in a separate pamphlet), which was afterwards reprinted with certain additions in the Moscow Journal, "Orthodox Review," of April, 1876 (pages 730-746), under the title: "A new translation of the Commentaries upon the canons of the church." To these criticisms the Professor of Ecclesiastical Law in the Moscow Ecclesiastical Academy, Alexander Theodorovich Lavroff, wrote a reply in "Lectures delivered in the Society of Amateurs of Spiritual Enlightenment" (for the year 1877, part 2, pages 158-194), entitled "A printed letter to Alexis Stepanovich Pavloff." Thus the plan of the edition gradually took shape. It was first printed in the Appendices to the Journal "Lectures in the Society, etc.," and subsequently was published separately in octavo in the following parts (A) I. "The Canons of the Holy Apostles with Commentaries" in two editions--Moscow, 1876, (from "Lectures," 1875, pages 1-163) 4 + 12 + 175 pages, and ibid., 1887, 5-12 + 163 pages; II. "Canons of the Holy Ecumenical Councils with Commentaries" (from "Lectures" 1875, pages 165-325; 1876, pages 329-680; 1877, pages 891-900), in two parts: 1st "The Canons of the Councils I.-IV.," Moscow, 1877, 260 pages; 2d. "The Canons of Councils V.-VII.," ibid., 736 pages; (B) "The Canons of the Holy Local Councils with Commentaries," also in two parts (from "Lectures" 1877, pages 900-1066; 1878, pages 1067-1306; 1879, pages 1307-1410): the 1st (The Canons of the Councils of Ancyra, Neocæsarea, Gangra, Antioch, Laodicea, and Sardica) Moscow, 1880, 359 pages; the 2d (The Canons of the Councils of Carthage [with the letters to Pope Boniface and to Pope Celestine], Constantinople, the First-and-Second, and that in the Temple of the Wisdom of the Word of God) ibid., 1881, 876 pages; (C) "The Canons of the Holy Fathers with Commentaries," ibid., 1884, 626 pages. Together with these is a separate "Index of subjects contained in the edition of the Canons of the Apostles, Councils and Holy Fathers with Commentaries," Moscow, 1888, 58 pages in octavo. The Greek text of the canons follows the edition Suntagma ton theion kai ieron kanonon...hupo G. A. Ralle kai M. Potle, Athenesin 1852-1854, and alongside of it is placed a literal Slavonic translation, after which follows a Russian translation of the Commentaries of the Byzantine Canonists (Zonaras, Aristenus, Balsamon), and the text and commentaries of the Slavonic "Kormchaja;" all this is accompanied by introductions and explanations of all sorts (historical, philological, etc.). This edition is rightly considered by specialists to be of very great value from a scientific point of view. Professor A. Th. Lavroff (who became a monk under the name Alexis, and died Archbishop of Lithuania and Vilna) was its chief editor and had most to do with it, but many others took part in the work, and amongst these Professor A. S. Pavloff.

Previous Page / First / Next Page of the Ecumenical Councils - Introduction

Home of the Ecumenical Councils ||| More Church Fathers

Elpenor's Free Greek Lessons

Reference address : https://elpenor.org/ecumenical-councils/introduction.asp?pg=21