Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Universae

Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Universae is the name of a work published at Paris in 1610 by Christ. Justeau (Justellus), which undertook to give the canons of the first councils in a shape as conformable as possible to the collection of canons which the Council of Chalcedon (451) was supposed to have made. This codex canonum, etc., was reprinted in the Bibl. jur. can. vet. (tom. 1, p. 29), published by Justellus and Voallus. The supposition which led to the compilation of this work, that the Council of Chalcedon had made or ordered to be made such a collection of canons, is erroneous. It is true that the resolutions of the ancient Church councils were early collected and circulated among the bishops, and that at the Council of Chalcedon many of the bishops had with them collections containing the canons of the five synods of Nice, Ancyra, Neo-Caesarea, Gangra, and Antiochia, from which many passages were read. But it appeared that in the arrangement of the canons the collections widely differed, and it is not known that the council took any action with regard to the matter. Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lex. 2, 649.