BYZANTINE LAW

BYZANTINE LAW. Up until the last two centuries of its existence, the law of Byzantium was Roman law as codified under Justinian (qq.v.) and as supplemented by the later additions of several emperors, as in Leo VI’s Ecloga and Novels dealing with marriage and criminal law, or the summary, the Epanagoge (q.v.) prepared during the reign of the same emperor. This web of legislation, already venerable at the beginning of the Byzantine era (q.v.), contributed significantly to Byzantium’s remarkable stability and placed effective, if not theoretical, limits on the powers of the emperor. Perhaps more importantly, it was also the matrix within which the Orthodox Church enacted its Canon Law (q.v.), the emperor being the latter’s enforcer. Together with the scriptural, liturgical, and patristic sources provided to the Slavic churches in translation, a substantial selection of this legal tradition was also transmitted, for example in such collections as the Slavic Kormchaya Kniga. These collections included, as was the case in Byzantine law, both civil and ecclesiastical legislation.