l and so widely
known that all these canons were numbered in sequence, and thus at the
council of Chalcedon (451) several of the canons of Antioch were read
out under the number assigned to them in the collection of the whole. It
was further increased by the twenty-eight (thirty) canons of Chalcedon;
about the same time were added the four canons of the council of
Constantinople of 381, under the name of which also appeared three (or
seven) other canons of a later date. Towards the same date, also, the
so-called "Apostolic Canons" were placed at the head of the group. Such
was the condition of the Greek collection when it was translated and
introduced into the West.

Its final form.

In the course of the 6th century the collection was completed by the
addition of documents already in existence, but which had hitherto
remained isolated, notably the canonical letters of several great
bishops, Dionysius of Alexandria, St Basil and others. It was at this
time that the Latin collection of Dionysius Exiguus became known; and
just as he had given the Greek councils a place in his collection, so
from him were borrowed the canons of councils which did not appear in
the Greek collection--the twenty canons of Sardica (343), in the Greek
text, which differs considerably from the Latin; and the council of
Carthage of 410, which itself included, more or less completely, in 105
canons, the decisions of the African councils. Soon after came the
council _in Trullo_ (692), also called the _Quinisextum_, because it was
considered as complementary to the two councils (5th and 6th ecumenical)
of Constantinople (553 and 680), which had not made any disciplinary
canons. This assembly elaborated 102 canons, which did not become part
of the Western law till much later, on the initiative of Pope John VIII.
(872-881). Now, in the second of its canons, the council in Trullo
recognized and sanctioned the Greek collection above mentioned; it
enumerates all its articles, insists on the recognition of these canons,
and at the same time prohibits the addition of others. As thus defined,
the collection contains the following documents: firstly, the
eighty-five Apostolic Canons, the Constitutions having been put aside as
having suffered heretical alterations; secondly, the canons of the
councils of Nicaea, Ancyra, Neocaesarea, Gangra, Antioch, Laodicea,
Constantinople (381), Ephesus (the disciplinary canons of this council
deal with the reception o