s, as well as without doubt
the most ancient of these local collections is that of the Church of
Africa. It was formed, so to speak, automatically, owing to the plenary
assemblies of the African episcopate held practically every year, at
which it was customary first of all to read out the canons of the
previous councils. This gave to the collection an official character. At
the time of the Vandal invasion this collection comprised the canons of
the council of Carthage under Gratus (about 348) and under Genethlius
(390), the whole series of the twenty or twenty-two plenary councils
held during the episcopate of Aurelius, and finally, those of the
councils held at Byzacene. Of the last-named we have only fragments, and
the series of the councils under Aurelius is very incomplete. The
African collection has not come to us directly: we have two incomplete
and confused arrangements of it, in two collections, that of the
_Hispana_ and that of Dionysius Exiguus. Dionysius knows only the
council of 419, in connexion with the affair of Apiarius; but in this
single text are reproduced, more or less fully, almost all the synods of
the collection; this was the celebrated _Concilium Africanum_, so often
quoted in the middle ages, which was also recognized by the Greeks. The
Spanish collection divides the African canons among seven councils of
Carthage and one of Mileve; but in many cases it ascribes them to the
wrong source; for example, it gives under the title of the fourth
council of Carthage, the _Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua_, an Arlesian
compilation of Saint Caesarius, which has led to a number of incorrect
references. Towards the middle of the 6th century a Carthaginian deacon,
Fulgentius Ferrandus, drew up a _Breviatio canonum_,[5] a methodical
arrangement of the African collection, in the order of the subjects.
From it we learn that the canons of Nicaea and the other Greek councils,
up to that of Chalcedon, were also known in Africa.

Rome.

Dionysius Exiguus and his collection.

Dionysio-Hadriana.

The Roman Church, even more than the rest, governed itself according to
its own customs and traditions. Up to the end of the 5th century the
only canonical document of non-Roman origin which it officially
recognized was the group of canons of Nicaea, under which name were also
included those of Sardica. A Latin version of the other Greek councils
(the one referred to by Dionysius as _prisca_) was known, but no
canonica