The creation of a system of Orthodox canon law: The case of the Pedalion (1800)

Nikiforos, Dimitrios 2025. The creation of a system of Orthodox canon law: The case of the Pedalion (1800). PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

The present work examines the status of the annotated canonical collection Pedalion (Leipzig, 1800) and explains the influence that it enjoys even today within the Eastern Orthodox Church. To the first question, Part I gives the answer that the Pedalion is, even if not the exclusive, still an official collection, containing an expanded version of the Byzantine corpus canonum, where the original text of each canon in ancient Greek is supplemented with new comments in modern Greek. This conclusion is based on this dissertation’s finding that the Pedalion was the first canonical collection that was synodically promulgated by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Part II identifies the Pedalion’s great influence in the creation of a system of Canon Law, (a) in the Hartian sense of combining primary rules of conduct (the canons) with a set of secondary rules of recognition, change and adjudication that the present work distils from the Pedalion’s definition of “canon” and its accompanying list of 14 “axioms;” and (b) in the sense of a handy manual that provides as a model for church governance the antithetical pair akriveia and oikonomia, as rule and exception, respectively. This study proposes the replacement of this antithesis, which has dominated the scholarship both within and outside the Orthodox Church, especially in relation to the question of the reception of converts, as not doing justice to the rich Byzantine legacy of these two notions. This innovative approach to the Pedalion is accomplished via a close reading, using the methods of textual and historical criticism, of central texts from the Pedalion’s corpus, along with the recently published correspondence between the Pedalion’s main author, the monk Nicodemos, and the Pedalion’s reviewer, and the only surviving manuscript copy of the Pedalion, which this study identifies as containing the Pedalion’s original draft with certain minor additions.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > Cardiff Law & Politics
Subjects:	K Law > K Law (General) K Law > KZ Law of Nations
Uncontrolled Keywords:	canon law; byzantine; ottoman; church law; canonical collections; medieval law; legal history; Pedalion; Rudder; oikonomia; akriveia; H.L.A. Hart; rule of recognition; legal system; Nicodemos Hagiorite; corpus canonum; legal axioms; William Beveridge
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	5 September 2025
Last Modified:	08 Sep 2025 11:21
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/180941

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