1. A law, rule, or ordinance in general, and of the church in particular. An ecclesiastical law or statute. Canon law. A body of ecclesiastical jurisprudence which, in countries where the Roman Catholic church is established, is composed of maxims and rules drawn from patristic sources, ordinances and decrees of general councils, and the decretals and bulls of the popes. In England, according to Blackstone, there is a kind of national canon law, composed of legatine and provincial constitutions enacted in England prior to the reformation, and adapted to the exigencies of the English church and kingdom. 1 Bl. Comm. 82. The canon law consists partly of certain rules taken out of the Scripture, partly of the writings of the ancient fathers of the church, partly of the ordinances of general and provincial councils, and partly of the decrees of the pope in former ages; and it is contained in two principal parts,the decrees and the decretals. The decrees are ecclesiastical constitutions made by the popes and cardinals. The decretals are canonical epistles written by the pope, or by the pope and cardinals, at the suit of one or more persons, for the ordering and determining of some matter of controversy, and have the authority of a law. As the decrees Bet out the origiD of the canon law, and the rights, dignities, and decrees of ecclesiastical persons, with their manner of election, ordination, etc., so the decretals contain the law to be used in the ecclesiastical courts. Jacob. Canon religiosornm. In ecclesiastical rec srds. A book wherein the religious of every greater convent had a fair transcript of the rules of their order, frequently read among hem as their local statutes. Kennett, Gloss.; [Lowell. 2. A system or aggregation of correlated >ranch of the substantive law. -Canons of construction. The system of undamental rules and maxims which are rec ignized as governing the construction or inter iretation of written instruments. Canons of lescent. The legal rules by which inheritan es are regulated, and according to which es ates are transmitted by descent from the attestor to the heir. Canons of inheritance. ?”he legal rules by which inheritances are regu ited, and according to which estates are translated by descent from the ancestor to the heir. Bl. Comm. 208. 3. A dignitary of the English church, behapter. 4. In the civil, Spanish, and Mexican law, n annual charge or rent; an emphyteutic jnt 5. In old English records, a prestation, ension, or customary payment.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
eccl. law. This word is taken from the Greek, and signifies a rule or law. In ecclesiastical law, it is also used to designate an order of religious persons. Francis Duaren says, the reason why the ecclesiastics called the rules they established canons or rules, (canones id est regulas) and not laws, was modesty. They did not dare to call them (leges) laws, lest they should seem to arrogate to themselves the authority of princes and magistrates.