canon law

American  

noun

1. the body of codified ecclesiastical law, especially of the Roman Catholic Church as promulgated in ecclesiastical councils and by the pope.

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canon law British  

noun

1. the law governing the affairs of a Christian Church, esp the law created or recognized by papal authority in the Roman Catholic Church See Corpus Juris Canonici Codex Juris Canonici

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Other Word Forms

• canon lawyer
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of canon law

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

canon law

At the center of the research are previously overlooked excerpts from a lost papal letter preserved in a medieval collection of canon law in the Vatican.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026

The verdict also did some legal gymnastics to make sense of the Vatican’s outdated criminal code, based on Italy’s 1889 code and the church’s canon law, requalifying or combining charges to fit into other ones.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 22, 2023

Francis remains in charge of the Vatican and the 1.3-billion-strong Catholic Church, even while unconscious and in the hospital, according to canon law.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 7, 2023

But six years later, the Vatican announced he was stepping down — two decades before the usual retirement age — citing a canon law that refers to health or other “grave” reasons.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 17, 2022

The Catholic Church has survived for centuries, not by passing on a ‘celibacy gene’ from one pope to the next, but by passing on the stories of the New Testament and of Catholic canon law.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

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