judicial system. To this end he codified the law, aiming to remove the confusion caused by obscure enactments adopted in the period after Justinian and edicts that had fallen into disuse. The first reforming code was the Procheiros Nomos (The Law Ready at Hand) or the Prochiron, issued in the name of the Emperors Basil, Constantine and Leo in the years between 870 and 879. This was a collection of Justinianic edicts, translated into Greek, and edicts taken
from the Ecloga of the
Isaurians.
The edicts in the Prochiron referred chiefly to family, hereditary and contractual law and, secondarily, to
penal and public law. New issues were accorded new laws. The Prochiron was widely distributed, being considered a necessary legislative handbook in an era in which Justinianic Law presented discrepancies and in which the legislation of the iconoclastic
Isaurians was not absolutely acceptable.The second legislative code of Basil I was the Eisagoge (Introduction), known until recently as Epanagoge, due to a mistaken handwritten translation. The Eisagoge was issued between 879 and 886, that is in the years when Basil I, Leo and Alexander reigned jointly. A special feature relates to the edicts covering relations between the Emperor and the Church with the role of the latter being emphasized (which is why the influence of the Patriarch Photios, the renowned defender of ecclesiastical independence, can be detected behind this work). The Eisagoge was the last collective work in which the emperor acknowledged the independence of the Byzantine clergy. It was never put into practical use, however, and did not influence the relations between State and Church in Byzantium itself. It had an important impact, however, through the translation of the Syntagma (Collection) of the divine and holy canons by Matthew Blastares, in the Slavonian countries and in the formation of Russian political theory.