New Contributions Regarding the Canonical Collection "Dionysiana"
New Contributions Regarding the Canonical Collection "Dionysiana"

Summary/Abstract: This study aims to highlight the historical and ecclesiological determinants that, at the beginning of the 6th century in Rome, led to the emergence of the first systematized canonical collection of the ecumenical Church, known as the Collectio Dionysiana. Compiled by one of the outstanding scholars of his epoch, the monk Dionysius Exiguus, originally from Scythia Minor (Dobrogea/ Romania), this collection not only represents the cornerstone of Western canon law but also served as the main element of cohesion for the unity of the Church in the face of major ecclesiological and doctrinal disputes during the first Christian millennium. The most significant of these was the temporary fracture of the Church’s ecumenicity through the Acacian Schism (484-519). By drafting and translating the canons of the Eastern synods into clear Latin, Dionysius created a reference canonical corpus, whose content was widely accepted both in the Byzantine and Roman spheres of influence. Thus, he rendered obsolete an older Roman collection known today as the Prisca Versio, which, through unclear translations and amalgamations of the canons from the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Sardica (343), provided unfounded canonical arguments for the assertion of papal primacy, that contributed decisively to the outbreak of the Acacian Schism.

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