This monograph deals with the timeless and inexhaustible subject of the relationship between the State and the Church, focusing chronologically on the period of Otto's reign.

More specifically, after a brief historical overview, the author examines the terms of the Synodical Volume of June 29, 1850, according to which the ecclesiastical diocese corresponding to the then Greek state is declared as an Autocephalous Church. Then, the reception reserved for the Synodical Volume by the State is described in detail. Despite the apparent approval of the 1850 Synodical Volume by the king, its content is not substantively accepted. This negative attitude is practically manifested mainly by the following events. The Synodical Volume is never officially legislatively ratified, while at the same time there is characteristic obstruction in the establishment of the statutory legislation of the Autocephalous Church of Greece. The culmination of the above rejection by the State of the 1850 Synodical Volume is the violation of its terms by the content of Laws S΄/1852 "On Bishops and the Clergy Serving under Bishops" and SA΄/1852 "On the Statutory Law of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece".

The author carefully analyzes the most important provisions of Laws S΄ and SA΄/1852, in the light of canon law and the terms of the 1850 Synodical Volume. With admirable methodicalness, the contrast between the state and ecclesiastical regulations, the manifest disposition of the State to maintain its position against the Church, as well as the undermining of the 1850 Synodical Volume by Laws S΄ and SA΄/1852 are highlighted.

Finally, this work is a successful example of interdisciplinary synthetic work, as it moves in a research area that intersects between legal science and canon law.