the history of the collections of canons. Comp. Feed. Waltdee : Lehrbuch des Kirchenrechts, p. 109 sqq., 8th ed., 1839. The universal councils, through their disciplinary enact- ments or canons, were the main fountain of ecclesiastical law. To their canons were added the decrees of the most important provincial councils of the fourth century, at Ancyra (314), ' On the proper number of the ecumenical councils, it may be added, the Roman divines themselves are not agreed. The Gallicans reckon twenty-one, Bellarmine /^ ■ _x eighteen, IK'fUL only-oixtcen. The undisputed ones, besides the eight already men- [ f^tW'***^ *'7 mtttt. tioned Grseco-Latin councils, are these SfaTLatin : the first Lateran (Roman) council, ^ €(*^J , A. D. 1123 ; the second Lateran, a. n. 1139; the third Lateran, a. d. 1179 ; the fourth /'-c -^cc ^t^^^ Lateran, a. d. 1215 ; the first of Lyons, a. d. 1245 ; the second of Lyons, a. d. 1274 ; that of Florence, a. d. 1439; (the fifth Lateran, 1512-1517, is disputed;) h^ that I tlr~t irf of Trent, a. d. 1545-1563^ The ecumenical character of the three reformatory -'^fi!// fp covmcils of Pisa, Constance, and Basle, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and ^ >, ^ of the fifth Lateran council, a. d. 1512-1517, is questioned among the Roman di- ^^^/^y, \9 vines, and is difierently viewed upon ultramontane and upon Gallican principles. "" / Ilefele considers them partially ecumenical ; that is, so far as they were ratified by -?^ VOL. II.— 23 Jt. 4t I. j> ^ ttj t f ^ a) -^ ''^Mm*(^t^tJl. P^^^^J' 354 THIKD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. /.* * ^ ■ N^o-Csesarea (314), Antiocli (341), Sardica (343), Gaugra (365), and Laodicea (between 343 and 381) ; and in a tliird series, tlie orders of eminent bishops, poj^es, and emperors. From these sources arose, after the beginning of the fifth century, or at all events before the council of Chaleedon, various collec- tions of the church laws in the East, in North Africa, in Italy, Gaul, and Spain ; which, however, had only provincial author- ity, and in many respects did not agree among themselves. A codex canonuin ecclesioe universce did not exist. The earlier collections became eclipsed by two, which, the one in the West, the other in the East, attained the highest consideration. The most important Latin collection comes from the Ro- man, though by descent Scythian, abbot Dionysius Exiguus,' who also, notwithstanding the chronological error at the base of his reckoning, immortalized liimself by the introduction of the Christian calendar, the " Dionysian Era." It was a great thought of this "little" monk to view Christ as the turning point of ages, and to introduce this view into chronology. About the year 500 Dionysius translated for the bishop Stephen of Salona a collection of canons from Greek into Latin, which is still extant, with its prefatory address to Stephen.' It contains, first, the fifty so-called Apostolic Canons, which pretend to have been collected