Syntagma Canonum

Syntagma Canonum is a canon law collection made in 1335 by Matthew Blastares, a Greek monk about whose life nothing certain is known.

The collector aimed at reducing canon law to a handier and more accessible form than it appeared in the Nomocanon of Photius, and to give a more comprehensive presentation than the epitomes and synopses of earlier writers such as Stephen (fifth century), Aristenus (1160), Arsenius (1255), et al.

He made 24 general divisions, each marked off by a letter of the Greek alphabet.

The church ordinances are quoted from previous collections, especially from the Nomocanon (883), while the extracts from the civil law are for the most part transcribed without any reference to their origin.

From this the purely ecclesiastical enactments were excluded, but the civil law contained in the Syntagma was reproduced whenever adaptable to the social condition of the people.