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  • The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica
  • H. A. Drake
Hamilton Hess The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica Oxford Early Christian Studies Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 Pp. xii + 279. $80.

When this book inaugurated the Oxford Theological Monographs series in 1958, its title was The Canons of the Council of Sardica, A.D. 343: A Landmark in the Early Development of Canon Law. The repositioning of title and subtitle indicates the primary change in this new edition. Whereas the first edition began [End Page 250] with a discussion of the historical and textual issues surrounding the composition and survival of the canons of Serdica, this material is now preceded by a new Part I that adds almost 100 pages of new text to the volume. Here Hess demonstrates how, through the twin pressures of schism and recalcitrant clergy, meetings that were originally deliberative in nature, seeking to resolve local issues through open discussion and consensus, were transformed into legislative assemblies (44). The transformation is reflected in the meaning of the Greek κανων, which by the end of the fourth century had changed from "custom" to "conciliar enactments" (77). The three chapters in Part II, "Serdica: the Council and its Canons," contain lightly revised versions of chapters of the former Part I dealing with the background to the Council, historical and textual problems, and transmission of the text. As in the first edition, the book closes with a final part, "Studies in Interpretation," in which the canons are individually analyzed after being re-sorted under four general headings: "The Appointment of Bishops," "The Translation of Bishops and Other Clergy," "The Appeal Canons," and "Episcopal Visits to the Imperial Court." In this edition Hess has added Greek text to the Latin and provided an English translation for both.

Obviously, more has changed in this edition than the spelling of Serdica (or of Ossius—formerly Hosius—of Cordoba). But in important ways this book remains very much what it was when it first appeared. In the intervening half century, the burgeoning field of Late Antiquity has developed a more sympathetic understanding of the eastern bishops who withdrew from the synod and of the political machinations on both sides. Hess's concentration on the canons causes him to give short shrift to such ambiguities; in his study, right and wrong positions are always easy to discern.

This said, the virtues of Hess's approach are many. The author argues that Serdica was a pivotal moment in the process of conciliar transformation.1 The western bishops there set out deliberately to create an avenue of appeal for clergy who believed themselves victims of politically motivated synods and to rein in the ambitions of others who sought to remove themselves to more prestigious sees. The effect of these decisions, in the West at least, was decisive (111).

The 20–25 Serdican canons (the number varies in different mss.) are notoriously confusing and even contradictory, and previous scholars had created even more problems by trying to resolve the problems by claiming primacy for either the Greek or Latin versions of the text. Hess argues instead that the two versions are equally valid. He demonstrates that the canons originated as "stenographic records" reflecting a process by which a formal proposal (relatio) is followed by suggested resolutions (sententiae) and a summary of the issue by the presiding bishop (64). He is particularly judicious in analyzing the canons that specify appeal to the bishop of Rome (3bc. 4, 7 and 17 in the Latin text). Whereas theological positions have guided much previous analysis, Hess's philological and historical approach leads him to conclude that (1) the three canons involved are not separate but "three phases of the [same] verbal process" (180), and (2) the "Serdican formula represents a stage of development towards the notion of papal jurisdiction," but such jurisdication had not yet been articulated (188).

Hess's much-expanded bibliography shows that he has kept abreast of important [End Page 251] new scholarship concerning argumentation and decision-making in Late Antiquity, such as Richard Lim's Public Disputation, Power and Social Order in Late Antiquity (Berkeley, 1995). But...

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