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-{"_default": {"1": {"name": "apostles", "history": "", "canons": [{"canon": 1, "text": "Two or three other bishops are needed to ordain a bishop."}, {"canon": 2, "text": "A priest must be ordained by a single bishop, and so must a deacon and other clergymen."}, {"canon": 3, "text": "If any bishop or priest, contrary to the Lord's ordinance relating to sacrifice, offers anything else at the sacrificial altar, whether it be honey, or milk, or artificial liquor instead of wine, chickens, or any kind of animal, or vegetables, contrary to the ordinance, let him be deposed: except ears of new wheat or bunches of grapes, in due season. Let it not be permissible to bring anything else to the sacrificial altar but oil for the lamp, and incense at the time of the holy oblation."}, {"canon": 4, "text": "Let all other fruit be sent home to the bishop and priests as first fruits, but not to the sacrificial altar. It is understood that the bishop and priests shall distribute a fair share to the deacons and other clergymen."}, {"canon": 5, "text": "No bishop, priest, or deacon shall divorce his own wife under pretext of reverence. If he divorces her, let him be excommunicated; and if he persist in so doing, let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 6, "text": "A bishop, or priest, or deacon must not undertake worldly cares. If he does, let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 7, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon celebrate the holy day of Pascha before the vernal equinox with the Jews, let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 8, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon, or anyone else in the clerical list, fail to partake of communion when the oblation has been offered, he must tell the reason; and if it is a good excuse, he shall receive a pardon. But if he refuses to tell it, he shall be excommunicated, on the ground that he has become a cause of harm to the laity and has instilled a suspicion against the one offering of it, that the latter has failed to present it in a sound manner."}, {"canon": 9, "text": "All those faithful who enter and listen to the Scriptures, but do not stay for prayer and Holy Communion must be excommunicated, on the ground that they are causing the Church a breach of order."}, {"canon": 10, "text": "One who prays with the excommunicant, shall himself be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 11, "text": "A clergyman who prays in company with a deposed clergyman shall also be deposed."}, {"canon": 12, "text": "If any clergyman, or laymen, who has been excommunicated, or who has not been admitted to repentance, shall go away and be received in another city, without commendatory letters, both the receiver and the one received shall be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 13, "text": "If he has been excommunicated let his excommunication be augmented, on the grounds that he has lied and that he has deceived the Church of God."}, {"canon": 14, "text": "A bishop shall not abandon his own parish and go outside of it to interlope to another one, even though urged by a number of persons to go there, unless there be a good reason for doing so, on the grounds that he can be of greater help to the inhabitants there, by reason of his piety. And even then he must not do so of his own accord, but in obedience to the judgment of many bishops, and at their urgent request."}, {"canon": 15, "text": "If any priest, or deacon, or anyone at all on the list of clerics, abandoning his own province, departs to another, and after deserting it entirely, sojourns in another, contrary to the mind of his own bishop, we bid him to officiate no longer; especially if his bishop summons him to return, and he has not obeyed and persists in his disorderliness; however, he may commune there as layman."}, {"canon": 16, "text": "On the other hand, if the bishop with whom they are associating, admits them as clergymen in defiance of the deprivation prescribed against them, he shall be excommunicated as a teacher of disorder."}, {"canon": 17, "text": "Whoever has entered into two marriages after baptism, or has possessed himself of a mistress, cannot be a bishop, or a priest, or a deacon, or anything else in the list of clerics."}, {"canon": 18, "text": "No one who has taken a widow, or a divorced woman, or a harlot, or a housemaid, or any actress as his wife, may be a bishop, or a priest, or a deacon, or hold any other position at all in the clerical list."}, {"canon": 19, "text": "Whoever marries two sisters, or a niece, may not be a clergyman."}, {"canon": 20, "text": "Any clergyman that gives himself as security shall be deposed."}, {"canon": 21, "text": "A eunuch, whether he became such by influence of men, or was deprived of his virile parts under persecution, or was born thus, may, if he is worthy, become a bishop."}, {"canon": 22, "text": "Let no one who has mutilated himself become a clergyman; for he is a murderer of himself, and an enemy of God's creation."}, {"canon": 23, "text": "If anyone who is a clergyman should mutilate himself, let him be deposed, for he is a self-murderer."}, {"canon": 24, "text": "Any layman who has mutilated himself shall be excommunicated for three years, for he is a plotter against his own life."}, {"canon": 25, "text": "Any bishop, or priest, or deacon that is taken in the act of committing fornication, or perjury, or theft, shall be deposed, but shall not be excommunicated, for Scripture says: \"You shall not exact revenge twice for the same offense.\" The same rule applies also to the rest of clergymen."}, {"canon": 26, "text": "As to bachelors who have entered the clergy, we allow only readers and chanters to marry if they wish to do so."}, {"canon": 27, "text": "As for a bishop, or priest, or deacon that strikes believers for sinning, or unbelievers for wrong-doing, with the idea of making them afraid, we command that he be deposed. For the Lord has nowhere taught that; on the contrary, He Himself when struck did not strike back; when reviled, He did not revile His revilers; when suffering, He did not threaten."}, {"canon": 28, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon, who has been justly deposed for proven crimes, should dare to touch the Liturgy which had once been put in his hands, let him be cut off from the Church altogether."}, {"canon": 29, "text": "If any bishop become the recipient of this office by means of money, or any priest, or any deacon, let him be deposed as well as the one who ordained him, and let him be cut off entirely even from communion, as was Simon the Sorcerer by me, Peter."}, {"canon": 30, "text": "If any bishop comes into possession of a church by employing secular rulers, let him be deposed, and let him be excommunicated, and also all those who communicate with him."}, {"canon": 31, "text": "If any priest, condemning his own bishop, draws people aside, and sets up another altar, without finding anything wrong with the bishop in point of piety and justice, let him be deposed, on the ground that he is desirous of power. For he is a tyrant; and let the rest of the clergymen and all those who abet him be treated in the same manner. But let the laymen be excommunicated. Let these things be done after one, and a second, and a third request of the bishop."}, {"canon": 32, "text": "If any bishop excommunicates any priest or deacon, these men must not be received by anyone except the one who excommunicated them, unless by a coincidence the bishop who excommunicated them should decease."}, {"canon": 33, "text": "None of the foreign bishops, priests or deacons shall be received without commendatory letters. Even when they bear such, they shall be examined. And if they really are preachers of piety, they shall be received; but if they are not, after furnishing them with any necessities, they shall not be admitted to communion. For many things are done with a view toward plunder."}, {"canon": 34, "text": "It befits us bishops of every nation to know the one among them who is the premier or chief, and to recognize him as their head, and to refrain from doing anything superfluous without his advice and approval: but, instead each of them should do only whatever is necessitated by his own parish, and by the territories under him. Let not even such a one do anything without the advice, consent and approval of all. For thus will there be concord, and God will be glorified through the Lord in Holy Spirit, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."}, {"canon": 35, "text": "A bishop shall not dare to confer ordinations outside of his own boundaries, in cities and territories not subject to him. If he is proved to have done so against the wishes of those having possession of those cities or territories, let him be deposed, as well as those whom he ordained."}, {"canon": 36, "text": "In case any bishop who has been ordained refuses the office and the care of the laity, which has been entrusted to him, he shall be excommunicated and remain so until such time as he accepts it. This also applies to a priest and deacon. But if upon departing, he fail to accept it, not contrary to his own inclination, but because of the spitefulness of the laity, let him be a bishop, but let the clergy of that city be excommunicated, since no one can correct such an insubordinate laity."}, {"canon": 37, "text": "Twice a year let a synod of bishops be held, and let them examine one another in regards to dogmas of piety, and let incidental ecclesiastical contradictions be eliminated: the first one, in the fourth week of Pentecost; the second one, on the twelfth of Hyperberetaeus (October)."}, {"canon": 38, "text": "Let the bishop have the care of all ecclesiastical matters and let him manage them, with the understanding that God is overseeing and supervising. Let him not be allowed to appropriate anything from this or to give God's things to his relatives. If they be indigent, let him provide for them as indigents, but let him not trade off things of the Church under this pretext."}, {"canon": 39, "text": "Let priests and deacons do nothing without the consent of the bishop. For he is the one entrusted with the Lord's people, and it is from him that an accounting will be demanded with respect to their souls."}, {"canon": 40, "text": "Let the bishop's own property (if indeed he has any) be publicly known, and let the Lord's be publicly known. In order that the bishop may have authority to dispose of his own property when he dies, and leave it to whomever he wishes and as he wishes. And lest, by reason of any pretext of ecclesiastical property, the property of the bishop be mixed and buried therein and that he may have a wife and children, relatives or house servants. For it is only just with God and men that neither the church should suffer any loss owing to ignorance of the bishop's property, nor the bishop, or his relatives, should have their property confiscated on the pretext that it belonged to the church.
Or even to have trouble with those who are quarreling over his property, and to have his death involved in aspersions."}, {"canon": 41, "text": "We command that the bishop have authority over the property of the church. For if the precious souls of men ought to be entrusted to him, there is little need of any special injunction concerning money; so that everything may be entrusted to be governed in accordance with his authority, and he may grant to those in need through the priests and deacons with fear of God and all reverence; while he himself may partake thereof whatever he needs (if he needs anything) for his necessary needs, and for brethren who are his guests, so as not to deprive them of anything, in any manner. For God's law has enjoined that those who serve at the altar are to be maintained at the altar's expense. The more so in view of the fact that not even a soldier ever bears arms against belligerents at his own expense."}, {"canon": 42, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon wastes his time by playing dice, or getting drunk, either let him desist from this or let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 43, "text": "Let any subdeacon, or readers, or psalti, who does similar things either desist or be excommunicated. This applies to any layman."}, {"canon": 44, "text": "Let any bishop or priest or deacon who demands interest on money lent to others either cease doing so or be deposed."}, {"canon": 45, "text": "Let any bishop, or priest, or deacon that only joins in prayer with heretics be suspended, but if he has permitted them to perform any service as clergy let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 46, "text": "We order any bishop or priest, that has accepted any heretic's baptism or sacrifice be deposed; for \"what consonance has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the believer with an unbeliever?\""}, {"canon": 47, "text": "If a bishop or priest baptize anew anyone that has had a true baptism, or fail to baptize anyone that has been polluted by the impious, let him be deposed, on the ground that he is mocking the Cross and Death of the Lord and for failing to distinguish priests from pseudo-priests."}, {"canon": 48, "text": "If any layman who has divorced his wife takes another, or one divorced by another man, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 49, "text": "If any bishop or priest baptize anyone not into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in accordance with the Lord's ordinance, but into three beginningless beings or into three sons or into three comforters, let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 50, "text": "If any bishop or priest does not perform three immersions (baptisms) in making one baptism, but only a single immersion (baptism) that given into the death of the Lord, let him be deposed. For the Lord did not say, Baptize into my death, but, \"Go you and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.\""}, {"canon": 51, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon, or anyone at all on the holy list, abstain from marriage, or meat, or wine, not as a matter of mortification, but out of an abhorrence thereof, forgetting that all things are exceedingly good, and that God made man male and female, but blasphemously misrepresenting God's work of creation, either let him correct and purge his ways or let him be excluded from the Church. The same applies to a layman."}, {"canon": 52, "text": "If any bishop or priest shall refuse to welcome back anyone returning from sin, but on the contrary, rejects him, let him be deposed, since he grieves Christ, who said: \"There is joy in heaven over a single sinner who repents.\""}, {"canon": 53, "text": "If any bishop, priest or deacon, on the days of feasts will not partake of meat and wine, because he loathes these things, and not on account of asceticism, let him be deposed, on the ground that he has his own conscience seared and has become a cause of scandal to many."}, {"canon": 54, "text": "If any clergyman be discovered eating in a tavern let him be excommunicated, except only in case it he happens to be at a wayside inn where he puts up out of necessity."}, {"canon": 55, "text": "If any clergyman should insult the bishop let him be deposed. For \"you shall not speak badly about your people's ruler.\""}, {"canon": 56, "text": "If any clergyman should insult a priest or a deacon, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 57, "text": "If any clergyman ridicules the lame, or the deaf or the blind or the crippled, let him be excommunicated. The same applies to a layman."}, {"canon": 58, "text": "If any bishop or priest neglects the clergy or the laity, and neglects to instruct them in piety, let him be excommunicated: but if he persists in his negligence and indolence, let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 59, "text": "If any bishop or priest fails to supply necessities when any of the clergy is in want, let him be excommunicated. If he persists, let him be deposed, as having murdered his brother."}, {"canon": 60, "text": "If anyone reads to the public in churches, the books of impious writers bearing false inscriptions and purporting to be holy, to the injury of laity and clergy, let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 61, "text": "If a charge of fornication, or of adultery, or of any other forbidden act be brought against one of the faithful, and be proved, let him not be promoted to the clergy."}, {"canon": 62, "text": "If any clergyman, for fear of any man, whether a Jew or a Greek or a heretic, should deny the name of Christ, let him be cast out; or if he deny the name of clergyman, let him be deposed; and if he repent, let him be accepted as a layman."}, {"canon": 63, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon, and all on the clerical list, eat meat in the blood of its soul, or that which a wild beast has killed, or that which has died a natural death, let him be deposed. For the Law has forbidden this. But if any layman do this, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 64, "text": "If any clergyman is found to be fasting on the Lord's Day (Sunday), or on Saturday with the exception of one only, let him be deposed. If he is a layman, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 65, "text": "If any clergyman, or layman, enter a synagogue of Jews or of heretics to pray, let him be both deposed and excommunicated."}, {"canon": 66, "text": "If any clergyman strikes anyone in a fight, and kills by a single blow, let him be deposed for his insolence. But if he is a layman, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 67, "text": "If anyone is keeping a virgin whom he has forcibly raped and who is not promised to another, let him be excommunicated. And let it not be permissible for him to take another, but let him be obliged to keep her whom he has made his choice even though she happens to be indigent."}, {"canon": 68, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon accepts a second ordination from anyone, let him and the one who ordained him be deposed, unless it be established that his ordination has been performed by heretics. For those who have been baptized or ordained by such persons cannot possibly be either faithful Christians or clergymen."}, {"canon": 69, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon, or subdeacon, readers, or psalti fails to fast throughout the forty days of the Great Fast, or on Wednesday, or on Friday, let him be deposed, unless he has been prevented from doing so by reason of bodily illness. If, on the other hand, any layman fail to do so, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 70, "text": "If any bishop, priest, or deacon, or anyone at all who is on the list of clergymen, fast together with Jews, or celebrates a holiday together with them, or accepts from them holiday gifts or favors, such as unleavened wafers, or anything of the like, let him be deposed. If a layman do likewise, however, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 71, "text": "If any Christian conveys oil to a temple of heathen, or to a synagogue of Jews, in their festivals, or lights lamps for them, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 72, "text": "If any clergyman, or layman, takes a wax candle or any oil from the holy church, let him be excommunicated and be compelled to give back what he took, together with a fifth part of its value as well."}, {"canon": 73, "text": "Let no one appropriate any longer for his own use any golden or silver vessel that has been sanctified, or any cloth: for it is unlawful to do so. If anyone be caught in the act, let him be punished with excommunication."}, {"canon": 74, "text": "When trustworthy men have accused a bishop of something, bishops must summon him; and if he answers and confesses, or is found guilty, let the penalty be fixed. But if when summoned he refuses to obey, let him be summoned a second time by sending two bishops to him. If even then he refuses to obey, let him be summoned a third time, two bishops again being sent to him; but if even then he shows contempt and fails to answer, let the synod decide the matter against him in whatever way seems best, so that it may not seem that he is getting the benefit by evading a trial."}, {"canon": 75, "text": "No heretic shall be accepted as a witness against a bishop, but neither shall one faithful alone: for \"every charge shall be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses.\""}, {"canon": 76, "text": "It is decreed that no bishop shall be allowed to ordain whomsoever he wishes to the office of the Episcopate as a matter of concession to a brother, or to a son, or to a relative. For it is not right for heirs to the Episcopate to be created, by subjecting God's things to human passion; for God's Church ought not to be entrusted to heirs. If anyone shall do this, let the ordination remain invalid and void, and let the bishop himself be penalized with excommunication."}, {"canon": 77, "text": "If any cripple, or anyone with a defect in an eye or in a leg, is worthy of the episcopate, let him be made a bishop, for it is not an injury to the body that defiles one, but a pollution of the soul."}, {"canon": 78, "text": "Let no one that is deaf nor anyone that is blind be made a bishop, not on the ground that he is deficient morally, but lest he should be embarrassed in the exercise of ecclesiastical functions."}, {"canon": 79, "text": "If anyone is possessed of a demon, let him not be made a clergyman, nor even be allowed to pray in company with the faithful. But after he has been cleansed from it, let him be received, and if worthy be made one."}, {"canon": 80, "text": "It is not right to ordain a man a bishop immediately after he has joined the Church and been baptized, if he has hitherto been leading a heathenish life, or has been converted from wicked behavior. For it is wrong to let one without experience become the teacher of others, unless in some special case this be allowed as a matter of divine favor and grace."}, {"canon": 81, "text": "We have said that a bishop, or a priest, must not descend himself into public offices, but must attend to ecclesiastical needs. Either let he be persuaded, therefore, not to do so, or let him be deposed. For no one can serve two masters, according to the Lord's injunction."}, {"canon": 82, "text": "We do not permit house servants to be ordained to the clergy without the consent of their masters, to the sorrow of the masters owning them. For such a thing causes an upheaval in the households. But if any house servant should appear to be worthy to be ordained to any rank, as our own Onesimus did, and their masters are willing to permit it, and grant them their freedom (by liberating them from slavery), and allow them to leave home, let him be so ordained."}, {"canon": 83, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon is engaged in military matters, and wishes to hold both a Roman (i.e. civil) and a holy office, let him be deposed. For \"render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.\""}, {"canon": 84, "text": "If anyone insults an emperor or king, or any other ruler, contrary to what is right and just, let him pay the penalty. Accordingly, if he is a clergyman, let him be deposed; but if he is a layman, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 85, "text": "To all you clergymen and laymen let the following books be venerable and holy: Of the Old Covenant, the five of Moses, namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; the one of Jesus of Nave (commonly called Joshua in English); the one of Judges; the one of Ruth; the four of the Kingdoms; two Chronicles of the Book of Days; two of Esdras; one of Esther; three of the Maccabees; one of Job; one Psalter (Psalms); three of Solomon, namely, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs; twelve of the Prophets; one of Isaiah; one of Jeremiah; one of Ezekiel; one of Daniel; outside of these it is permissible for you to recount in addition thereto also the Wisdom of very learned Sirach by way of teaching your younger folks.
Our own books, that is to say, those of the New Covenant, comprising four Gospels, namely, that of Matthew, of Mark, of Luke, and of John; fourteen Epistles of Paul; two Epistles of Peter, three Epistles of John; one of James; one of Jude; two Epistles of Clement; and the Injunctions addressed to you bishops through me, Clement, in eight books, which ought not to be divulged to all on account of the secret matters they contain) and the Acts of us Apostles."}]}, "3": {"name": "1nicea", "history": "The First holy Ecumenical Synod was held in Nicaea in Bithynia during the reign of Constantine the Great, A.D. 325. Outstanding men who attended it were Alexander the patriarch of Constantinople, Biton and Bicentius the priests, together with the devout one of Cordova, Spain, the three taken together who held the position of bishops, Silvester of Rome, and Julius, Alexander of Alexandria, who was competing with Athanasios the Great, who was then a deacon, Eustathios the patriarch of Antioch, Macarios the patriarch of Jerusalem, Paphnutios and Spyridon, James and Maximus—men adorned with apostolic gifts, and sufferings of martyrdom; and numerous others; according to the common and universally admitted tradition of the Church there were 318 in all. But besides them there were also another multitude of clergymen, priests, and deacons. This Synod was assembled against Arius, who was blaspheming that the Son and Logos of God was not of the same essence as the Father (or, as in Greek, coessential with the Father),and that consequently He was not a true God, but, on the contrary, a creature and \"ctisma,\" a Greek word meaning \"something built.\" It lasted three and a half years (though Gelasius, quoted by Photius in Anagnosma 256, says six and a half years), and delivered the common and divine and sacred Symbol of our faith which is well known to all and in which it proclaimed the Son and Logos of God to be a true God coessential with the Father, that is, a God having the same essence and nature as the Father, and consequently also the same glory, and authority, and lordship, and eternity, and all other Godlike peculiarities of divine nature. It is worded as follows: \"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty and the Creator of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father—that is, out of the essence of the Father, a God out of God, light out of light, true God out of 415 true God, begotten, not created, coessential with the Father and through whom all things were made, including all things in heaven and all things on earth; and who for us men and for our salvation came down, was incarnate and became man; He suffered; and rose on the third day, and ascended into the heavens, and is sitting at the right hand of the Father; who is coming again to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit; As for those who say that there was a time when He was not, and that He was not existent until He was born, and who allege that He was made out of non-beings, or out of some other substance or essence, or that the Son of God is mutable or alterable, the catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes them. Theodore of Jerusalem called this Symbol the correct confession of faith; St. Damasos I, bishop of Rome, called it a wall thwarting the weapons of the Devil. And, in general, it is called by all the Church the characteristic standard and the banner of the Orthodox, by means whereof they, as true soldiers of Christ, can be distinguished from the enemies of Christ and from those who, though hypocritically professing the name of Christ, are in reality false brethren and misbelievers. Even soldiers distinguish their fellow soldiers from their enemies and adversaries by means of a symbol called a standard, or flag. Hence it was that the word symbol as denoting a military standard was employed in a transferred sense as the name of that which is called the Symbol of the Faith. It also delivered the decree concerning Pascha which the catholic Eastern Church now observes precisely (concerning which see Apostolic Canon VII and Canon I of Antioch). Also, it issued also the present twenty Holy Canons, indefinitely confirmed by Canon I of the 4th Ecumenical Synod, but definitely by Canon II, of the 6th Ecumenical Synod and Canon I of the 7th Ecumenical Synod. Note, however, that the records of this First Ecumenical Synod are not extant, either in Greek or in Latin, but only whatever Eusebius of Pamphilus, Rufiuus, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Jerome, and others have affirmed, and principally and especially what has been handed down by Gelasius I (Cyzicenus), who wrote in the reign of Emperor Zeno in the year 476 and afterwards served as bishop of Caesarea in Palestine (see Volume I page 151, of the Collection of the Synods). These fragments, I say, which the abovementioned writers and Gelasius I have left us are all that is still extant. Nicetas Acominatus, or Choniates, calls the work written by Gelasius I records, but Photios says that it is a historical account rather than a record of the proceedings; John Cyparissiotes also mentions it (see Dositheos, page 108 of the Dodecabiblus).", "canons": [{"canon": 1, "text": "If anyone has been castrated by surgeons for a disease, or has been castrated by barbarians, let him remain in the clergy. But if anyone has castrated himself when well, he must be dismissed even if he is examined after being in the clergy. And henceforth no such person must be promoted to Holy Orders. But as is self-evident, though such is the case as regards those who affect the matter and dare to castrate themselves, if any persons have become eunuchs by barbarians or their lords, but are otherwise found to be worthy, the canon admits such persons to the clergy."}, {"canon": 2, "text": "Inasmuch as many things, whether of necessity or otherwise are urgently demanded by men or have been demanded by men, have been done contrary to the ecclesiastical canon so that men who have but recently come to the faith from a heathen life and have been catechized for only a short time, have been conducted directly to the spiritual bath; and as soon as baptized have been given an episcopate or the priesthood, it has seemed well henceforth to have no such thing occur. For the catechumen needs more time and a longer trial after baptism. The Apostolic letter is also plain which says, \"not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he falls into the Devil's snare\". If, on the other hand, in the course of time any psychical [Greek psyhikos; pertaining to the soul, that is, the mind, the heart and will] sin is found against the person, and it is exposed by two or three witnesses, let such a person be dismissed from the clergy. As for anyone acting contrary hereto, as having the hardihood to do things opposed to the great Synod, he himself shall be in danger of losing his standing in the clergy."}, {"canon": 3, "text": "The great Synod has generally forbidden any bishop, priest or deacon, or anyone else among those in the clergy, the privilege of having a housekeeper; unless she is either a mother, a sister, an aunt, or a person above suspicion."}, {"canon": 4, "text": "It is most proper that a bishop should be installed by all those in his province. But if such a thing is difficult either because of the urgency of circumstances, or because of the distance to be traveled, at least three should meet together somewhere, and by their votes combined with the votes of those who are absent and join in the election by letter, they should thereafter carry out the ordination. But as for the ratification of the proceedings, let it be entrusted in each province to the metropolitan."}, {"canon": 5, "text": "As regards those who have been denied communion, whether clergy or laity, by the bishops in every eparchy, let the opinion prevail expressed in the canon prescribing that those rejected by some are not to be received by others. But let an investigation be made as to whether or not they have been unchurched on account of smallness of soul or contentiousness or any other such repugnancy of the bishop. In order, therefore, that a proper investigation may be made, it has seemed well that synods be held twice every year. In each eparchy and in a common discussion held by all the bishops of the eparchy assembled together. For this purpose let such questions be considered and decided upon. And thus those who have admittedly clashed with the bishop would seem to be reasonably excluded from communion until such time as by common consent of the bishops it may seem better to let a more philanthropic vote be given in their behalf. As for these synods, let one of them be held before the Great Fast, in order that, with the elimination of all smallness of soul, the gift may be offered to God in all its purity; and let the second one be held sometime in autumn."}, {"canon": 6, "text": "Let the ancient customs prevail which were in practice in Egypt, Libya and Pentapolis, to allow the Bishop of Alexandria to have authority over all these parts, since this is also the treatment usually accorded to the Bishop of Rome. Likewise with reference to Antioch, and in other provinces, let the seniority be preserved to the Churches. In general it is obvious that in the case in which anyone has been made a bishop without the metropolitan's approval, the great Synod has prescribed that such a person must not be a bishop. If however, concerning the common vote of all, though reasonable and in accordance with an ecclesiastical canon, two or three men object on account of contentiousness, let the vote of the majority prevail."}, {"canon": 7, "text": "Inasmuch as a custom has prevailed, and an ancient tradition, for the Bishop in Aelia [Jerusalem] to be honored, let him have the sequence of honor, with the metropolitan having his own dignity preserved."}, {"canon": 8, "text": "As concerning those who call themselves Cathari and who are claiming to be adherents of the catholic and apostolic Church, it has seemed right to the holy and great Synod, when they have had hands laid upon them, to let them remain in the clergy. Above all, that it is fitting for them to confess to this in uniting, to wit, that they will agree to and will adhere to the dogmas of the catholic and apostolic Church. That is, that they will hold communion with persons married a second time, and with those who in time of persecution have lapsed from the faith; regarding whom a length of time has been fixed, and a due season has been set for their repentance.
This is so that they may adhere to the dogmas of the Catholic Church in everything. Wherever they are the only ones found to have been ordained, whether in villages or in cities, they shall remain in the same habit (or order). But wherever there is a bishop of the Catholic Church, where some of them [cathari] are joining it, it is obvious that, as the bishop of the Church will keep the dignity of bishop, the one called a bishop among the so-called Cathari shall have the honor of a priest, unless it should seem better to the bishop that he should share in the honor of the name. But if this does not please him, he shall devise a position either of a chorepiscopus or of a priest, with the object of having him seems to be wholly in the clergy, or else there would then be two bishops in the same city."}, {"canon": 9, "text": "If some persons have been promoted to the priesthood without due examination, or when given a hearing confessed their sins to them, and after they confessed, these men, acting contrary to the canon, laid hands upon such persons, the canon will not admit them. For the Catholic Church insists upon irreproachability."}, {"canon": 10, "text": "As many persons as have been guilty of serious lapses and have been ordained in ignorance thereof or even after the ordainers have become aware thereof, they will not be admitted under the ecclesiastical canon. For when they have become known, they shall be deposed."}, {"canon": 11, "text": "Concerning those who have transgressed without any need, without being deprived of goods, without being in any peril or in any such strait as occurred during the tyranny of Licinius, it has seemed fit to the Synod to be kind to them, even though they did not deserve philanthropic treatment. As many, therefore, as sincerely repent with remorse shall pass three years among listeners as believers, and seven years as kneelers. In addition; for two years without communicating with the offering, they may pray with the people."}, {"canon": 12, "text": "As for those persons who were summoned by grace, and after displaying a preliminary enthusiasm and taking off their [army] belts, they returned like dogs to their vomit, in such a way that some of them even wasted money in an effort to re-establish themselves in the army by means of beneficial (a Latin word meaning gift), let them be kneelers for ten years after devoting three years as listeners. But in addition to all these requirements it is requisite to examine into the will (or inclinations) and the kind of repentance. For as regards all those who with fear, and tears, and patience, and the doing of good to others have displayed proofs of their conversion by actual performance and not by mere pretense, after they have fulfilled the time fixed for their listening period, they shall participate in prayers unrestrictedly, with the further concession of a right to the bishop to devise some more philanthropic treatment regarding them. But as for those who acted unconcernedly, and who thought the pretense of going to church a sufficient proof of their conversion, let them fulfill the time to the utmost limit."}, {"canon": 13, "text": "Concerning those who are exiting [from life, by dying], the old and canonical Law shall be kept even now, so that, if anyone is exiting, he should not be deprived of the necessary support [Divine Mystery]. However, when all hope is gone and he has been given communion, if he again is found among the living, let him stay with those who participate in prayer only. In general, moreover, as concerning anyone at all that is on the verge of making his exit, if he asks to partake of the Eucharist, let the bishop examine him and then impart the oblation."}, {"canon": 14, "text": "Concerning catechumens and lapsers, it has seemed proper to the holy great Synod to let them off with only three years' listening and to allow them thereafter to pray together with catechumens."}, {"canon": 15, "text": "Because of much disturbance and the mutinies which took place, it has seemed best to do away altogether with the custom which obtained contrary to the Apostolic canon in some places, so as not to allow either a bishop or a priest or a deacon to go from one city to another. If after the holy and great Synod's definition, anyone should attempt to do such a thing, or has actually undertaken to do such a thing, let the resulting affair be invalidated by all means, and let him be reinstated in the church in which the bishop or priest in question was ordained."}, {"canon": 16, "text": "Any priests or deacons, or other persons covered by the canon, who take the risk, without having the fear of God before their eyes, or keeping aware of the ecclesiastical canon, of departing from their own church, they must not be admitted at all in another church, but they must be strictly forced to return to their own parish, or, in case they insist, it is proper for them to be excluded from Communion. If on the other hand, anyone should surreptitiously snatch away one belonging to another and ordain him in his own church, without the consent of his bishop, from whom the one covered by the canon departed, let the ordination be invalid."}, {"canon": 17, "text": "Because of the fact that many persons covered by the canon, out of greed and in pursuit of shameful gain (willfully) forgot the divine passage of Holy Scripture saying \"who has not lent out his money at interest,\" and in lending demanded a profit, the holy and great Synod has deemed it just and right that in case anyone is found after the adoption of this definition receiving interest for the use of money, or otherwise exploiting the matter, or demanding commission, or through any other subterfuge contriving to exact shameful profits, he shall be deposed from the clergy and shall be an alien to the canon."}, {"canon": 18, "text": "It has come to the notice of the holy and great Synod that in some regions and cities deacons are giving the Eucharist to priests, which is something that neither the canon nor custom has allowed those who have not the authority to offer, to give the Body of Christ to those offering it. It has also further been learned that already some deacons touch the Eucharist even before the bishops. Let all these things, therefore, be done away with, and let deacons conform to their own standards, well knowing that they are servants of the bishop, and that they are inferior to priests. Let them take the Eucharist in due order after the priests, with either the bishop or the priests administering it to them. But neither let it be permissible for deacons to sit among priests for to do so is contrary to the canon, and is contrary to due order: if in this disregard of these definitions, anyone refuses to obey, let him be dismissed from his diaconate."}, {"canon": 19, "text": "Concerning the Paulianists who afterwards took refuge in the Catholic Church, it is established that they be rebaptized without fail. If in the past any of them have been covered [ordained] in the clergy, if under close examination are shown to be blameless and irreproachable, after rebaptism let them be ordained by a Bishop of the Orthodox Catholic Church. But if the investigation finds them unfit, let them be deposed. Likewise as concerning deaconesses, and all those who are embraced by the canon in any way and are being examined, the same form shall be observed. We have referred to the deaconesses who have been examined under cover of the habit, since they have neither any claim to appointment to any order, so that they are to be examined without fail among the laymen."}, {"canon": 20, "text": "Since there are some persons who kneel in church on the Lord's Day and on the days of Pentecost, with a view to preserving uniformity in all parishes, it has seemed best to the Holy Synod for prayers to be offered to God while standing."}]}, "4": {"name": "1const", "history": "", "canons": [{"canon": 1, "text": "The Holy Fathers assembled in Constantinople have decided not to set aside the faith of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers who met in Nicaea, Bithynia, but to let it remain sovereign, and that every heresy be anathematized, and especially and specifically that of the Eunomians, including that of the Adhesions, and that of the Semi-Arians, including that of the Pneumatomachs, and that of the Sabellians, and that of the Marcellians, and that of the Photinians, and that of the Apollinarians."}, {"canon": 2, "text": "Bishops must not leave their own diocese and go over to churches beyond its boundaries; but, on the contrary, in accordance with the Canons, let the Bishop of Alexandria administer the affairs of Egypt only, let the bishops of the East govern the Eastern Church only, the priorities granted to the church of the Antiochians in the Nicene canons being kept inviolate, and let the bishops of the Asian diocese administer only the affairs of the Asian church, and let those of the Pontic diocese look after the diocese of Pontus only, and let those of the Thracian diocese manage the affairs of the Thracian diocese only. Let bishops not go beyond their own province to carry out an ordination or any other ecclesiastical services unless summoned there. When the canon prescribed in regard to dioceses is duly kept; it is evident that the synod of each province will confine itself to the affairs of that particular province, in accordance with the regulations decreed in Nicaea. But the churches of God that are situated in territories belonging to barbarian nations must be administered in accordance with the customary practice of the Fathers."}, {"canon": 3, "text": "Let the Bishop of Constantinople, however, have the priorities of honor after the Bishop of Rome, because of its being New Rome."}, {"canon": 4, "text": "As concerning Maximus the Cynic, and the disturbance caused by him in Constantinople, it is hereby decreed that Maximus neither became nor is a bishop, and that neither are those ordained by him entitled to hold any clerical rank whatsoever. Let everything connected with him or done by him be annulled."}, {"canon": 5, "text": "As concerning the Tome of the Westerners, we have accepted also those in Antioch who confess a single divinity of Father and of Son and of Holy Spirit."}, {"canon": 6, "text": "Because many men, in a spirit of enmity and for purposes of slander being desirous to confound and subvert ecclesiastical discipline, connive to fabricate certain charges against Orthodox bishops managing the churches, in an attempt designing nothing else but to sully the reputation of the priests, and to raise disturbances among peoples who are at peace; on this account it has pleased the holy Synod of the bishops who have convened in Constantinople to decree that informers are not to be admitted without examination, nor are all men to be allowed to bring accusations against those managing the churches, nor yet are all to be excluded. But if anyone lay a personal grievance, that is, a private complaint, against a bishop, on the ground that he has been a victim of the bishop's greed or other unjust treatment, in the case of such accusations neither the personality nor the religion of the accuser is to be inquired into. For then the conscience of the bishop must be clear in every respect, and the man who claims to have been wronged should receive justice whatever be his religion. But if the indictment brought against the bishop be of an ecclesiastical nature, then the personality of the informers must be considered, in order, first of all, not to allow heretics to make charges against Orthodox bishops in regard to ecclesiastical matters. We call heretics those who have of old been proscribed from the Church and those who have thereafter been anathematized by us; and in addition those who though pretending to confess the sound faith, have schismatically separated and have gathered congregations in opposition to our canonical bishops. Further, as regarding those who have previously been condemned by the Church on certain charges and have been ousted from this or excluded from Communion, whether they belong to the clergy or to the ranks of laymen, neither shall these persons be allowed to accuse a bishop until they have first cleared themselves of their own indictment. Likewise as regarding those who themselves previously been accused, they are not to be permitted to accuse a bishop, or other clergymen, until they have first proved themselves innocent of the charges placed against them. If however, certain persons are neither heretics nor excluded from Communion, nor condemned, nor previously charged with any offenses, should declare that they have an accusation of an ecclesiastical nature against a bishop, the holy Synod bids these persons to lodge their accusations before all the bishops of the province and before them to prove the charges against the bishop involved in the case. But if it so happen that the provincial Bishops are unable or incompetent to decide the case against the bishop and make the correction due, then they are to go to a greater synod of the bishops of this diocese summoned to try this case. And they are not to lodge the accusation until they themselves have in writing agreed to incur the same penalty if in the course of the trial it be proved that they have been slandering the accused bishop. But if anyone, scorning what has been decreed in the foregoing statements, should dare either to annoy the emperor's ears or to trouble courts of secular authorities or an ecumenical synod to the disturbance of all the bishops of the diocese, let no such person be allowed to present any information whatever, because of his having thus roundly insulted the canons and ecclesiastical discipline."}, {"canon": 7, "text": "As for those heretics who proceed to embrace Orthodoxy, and join the portion of the saved, we accept them in accordance with the subjoined sequence and custom; Arians, and Macedoniacs, and Sabbatians, and Novatians, those calling themselves Cathari, and the Aristeri and Apollinarians we accept when they offer Orthodox documents and anathematize every heresy that does not hold the same beliefs as the catholic and apostolic Church of God, and are sealed first with holy myron (chrism) on their forehead and their eyes, and the nose and mouth, and ears; and in sealing them we say: \"The seal of a gift of Holy Spirit.\" As for Eunomians, however, who are baptized with a single immersion, and Montanists, who are here called Phrygians, and the Sabellians, who teach that Father and Son are the same person, and some other errors, and (those belonging to) other heresies (for there are many heretics here, especially such as come from the country of the Galatians): all of them that want to adhere to Orthodoxy we are willing to accept as Greeks. Accordingly, on the first day we treat them as Christians; on the second day, catechumens; then, on the third day, we exorcize them with the act of blowing thrice into their face and into their ears; and thus do we catechize them, and we make them stay a time in the church and listen to the Scriptures; and then we baptize them."}]}, "5": {"name": "ephesus", "history": "", "canons": [{"canon": 1, "text": "Since those who for any reason, whether of an ecclesiastical or of physical nature, are absent from the Holy Synod and have remained in their own town or district, ought not to be left in ignorance of the Synod's regulations regarding them, we make known to your holiness and love, that if any metropolitan of the province has apostatized from the holy and ecumenical Synod and joined the assembly of the apostasy, or has joined it thereafter, or has adopted the sentiments of Celestius or intends to adopt them, he shall have no power whatsoever to perpetrate anything against the bishops of the province, being already expelled and stripped of every function and of all ecclesiastical communion by the present Synod. Moreover, he shall be liable in any case, to be expelled from the rank of the episcopate by those very bishops of the province and by surrounding metropolitans who adhere to the beliefs of Orthodoxy."}, {"canon": 2, "text": "If, on the other hand, any provincial bishops have failed to attend the Holy Synod and have joined the apostasy, or should attempt to do so, or even after subscribing to the deposition of Nestorius have again gone to the synods of apostasy, all such persons, in the judgment that has seemed best to the Holy Synod, have alienated themselves from Holy Orders and have forfeited their rank."}, {"canon": 3, "text": "If some of the clergymen in any city or district have been shorn of Holy Orders by Nestorius and his party on account of their believing rightly, we have adjudged it right and just that they be restored to their own rank. We collectively bid the clergymen who agree in their beliefs with the Orthodox and the Ecumenical Synod not to submit in any way whatever to the bishops who have apostatized or have deserted us."}, {"canon": 4, "text": "If any of the clergymen should apostatize and dare, either publicly or privately, to hold the beliefs of Nestorius or of Celestius, the Holy Synod has deemed it just and right that these men too should be deposed."}, {"canon": 5, "text": "As for all those who have been condemned by the Holy Synod, or by their own bishops for improper acts, and to whom Nestorius and those sharing his views and beliefs have sought, or should seek, to give back communion or rank, uncanonically and in accordance with the indifference shown by Nestorius in all matters, we have deemed it right and just that they too remain without benefit and that they be left nevertheless deposed."}, {"canon": 6, "text": "Likewise in regard to any persons who should wish to alter in any way whatsoever anything that has been enacted by the Holy Synod in Ephesus, concerning anyone, the holy Synod has prescribed that if they be bishops or clergymen, they are to lose their own rank entirely, while if they be laymen, they are to be excluded from communion."}, {"canon": 7, "text": "These things having been read aloud, the Holy Synod then decreed that no one should be permitted to offer any different belief or faith, or in any case to write or formulate any other than the one defined by the Holy Fathers assembled with the Holy Spirit in the city of Nicaea. As for those who dare either to formulate a different belief or faith, or to present one, or to offer one to those who wish to turn to acknowledgment of the truth, whether they are Greeks or Jews, or they are members of any heresy whatever; if bishops or clergymen, they shall be deposed as bishops of their episcopate, and as clergymen of their clericate; but if they are laymen, they shall be anathematized. In the same manner, if any persons be discovered or discovered, whether bishops, clergymen or laymen, in the act of believing or teaching the things embodied in the exposition presented by Charisius the Priest concerning the incarnation of the Only-begotten Son of God, or by any chance, the unholy and perverse dogmas of Nestorius which have even been subjoined, let them stand liable to the judgment of this holy and Ecumenical Synod. As a consequence, that is to say, the bishop shall be deprived of his episcopate, and be left deposed, while the clergyman shall likewise forfeit his clericate. If on the other hand any such person is a layman, let him also be anathematized, as aforesaid."}, {"canon": 8, "text": "Our fellow Bishop Reginus, most beloved by God, and with him the most God-beloved bishops of the province of the Cypriotes Zeno and Evagrios, have announced an innovation, a thing whichis contrary to the ecclesiastical laws and the Canons of the Holy Apostles, and one which affects the freedom of all. Hence, since common ailments require more drastic treatment, on the ground that they do greater damage, and especially in view of the fact that the Bishop of Antioch, far from following the ancient custom, has been performing the ordinations in Cyprus, according to information given in the Book of Orthodox Documents and by oral statements made by most pious gentlemen who have approached the Holy Synod. Therefore those who preside over the churches in Cyprus shall retain their privilege unaffected and inviolate, according to the Canons of the Holy Fathers and ancient custom, whereby they shall themselves perform the ordinations of the most reverent bishops. The same rule shall hold good also with regard to the other dioceses and churches everywhere, so that none of the bishops most beloved by God shall take hold of any other province that was not formerly and from the beginning in his jurisdiction or was not held by his predecessors. But if anyone has taken possession of any, and has forcibly subjected it to his authority, he shall return it to its rightful possessor, in order that the Canons of the Fathers not be transgressed, nor the secular be introduced, under the pretext of divine services; lest imperceptibly and little by little we lose the freedom which our Lord Jesus Christ, the Liberator of all men, has given us as a free gift by His own Blood. For this reason, it seemed best to the holy and Ecumenical Synod that the rights of every province, formerly and from the beginning belonging to it, be preserved clear and inviolable, in accordance with the custom which prevailed of old, each metropolitan having permission to take copies of the proceedings for his own security. If, on the other hand, anyone introduce any form conflicting with the decrees that have now been sanctioned, it has seemed best to the entire holy and Ecumenical Synod that it shall be of no effect."}]}, "6": {"name": "2const", "history": "", "no_canons": true}, "7": {"name": "3const", "history": "", "no_canons": true}, "9": {"name": "chalcedon", "history": "", "canons": [{"canon": 1, "text": "We pronounce it just and right that the canons promulgated by the Holy Fathers, in each and every Synod down to the present time, continue in full force and effect."}, {"canon": 2, "text": "If any bishop ordain anyone for money, and make merchandise of the unsellable grace, and perform the ordination of a bishop, chorepiscopus, priest, deacon, or any one on the roll of the clergy, with a view to gain; or nominate any steward, ecdicus, or paramonarius, or anyone else that belongs to the canon, for money, with the object of making a shameful profit for himself: let him who is found guilty of having undertaken this stand in peril of his office; and let him who has been thus ordained have no benefit from such traffic in ordinations or nominations, but, on the contrary, let him be without any claim upon the dignity or job which he has thus obtained by means of money. If, in fact, anyone even appear as a middleman or factor or intermediary for such shameful and illicit deals, let him too, if he be a clergyman, forfeit his office; but if he be a layman or a monk, let him be anathematized."}, {"canon": 3, "text": "It is come to the (knowledge of the) Synod that some of those who had been listed in the roll of the clergy hire other men's estates for the sake of filthy lucre, and undertake to negotiate secular affairs, to the neglect of the Divine Liturgy, and betake themselves to the families of secular men, whose estates they undertake to manage out of love of money. Therefore the holy and great Synod decrees that no bishop, clergyman, or shall henceforth be allowed to farm any estate or office, or to involve himself in secular cares, unless he be unavoidably called by laws to the guardianship of minors, or the bishop permit him to take care of the affairs of the church, or of those of orphans or widows unprovided for, and of persons in especial need of ecclesiastical assistance, for the fear of God. If anyone presume to transgress hereafter any of the rules herein decreed, that person shall be liable to ecclesiastical penalties."}, {"canon": 4, "text": "Let them who sincerely and truly enter upon monastic life be accorded due honor. But inasmuch as some use the monk's garb to disturb the affairs of the Church and civil government, by going round in the cities negligently disregarding their duties, and even undertaking to build themselves monasteries, it is decreed that no one shall anywhere build or establish any monastery or any oratory (i.e. prayerhouse) without the consent and approval of the bishop of the city; and that monks in every city and country be subject to the bishop, and embrace quietude, and pay heed only to fasting and prayer, while continuing in the places patiently to which they have been assigned, without intruding upon or meddling in ecclesiastical affairs, nor leaving their own monasteries, unless at any time they be permitted to do so by the bishop of the city on account of some exigency; and that no one shall receive a slave into the monasteries to become a monk, without his owner's consent and approval. We have decreed that anyone transgressing this rule of ours shall be excluded from communion, in order that the name of God be not blasphemed. The bishop of the city, however, is required to make proper provision for monasteries."}, {"canon": 5, "text": "As regards bishops or clergymen who go from city to city, it has seemed fitting that the canons laid down by the Holy Fathers should remain in effect and be enforced."}, {"canon": 6, "text": "It is decreed that no one shall be ordained at large either a priest or a deacon, nor anything else at all in the ecclesiastical ranks unless he be particularly assigned to the church of some city, or to a martyry, or to a monastery. As for those ordained at large the Holy Synod has determined that any such chirothesy shall be null and void, and that such ordinees shall not be allowed to officiate anywhere, to the dishonor of the ordainer."}, {"canon": 7, "text": "We have decreed in regard to those who have once been enrolled in the clergy or who have become monks shall not join the army nor obtain any secular position of dignity. Let those be anathematized who dare to do this and fail to repent, so as to return to that which they had previously chosen on God's account."}, {"canon": 8, "text": "As for the clergymen attached to poorhouses or monasteries or martyries, let them remain under the authority of the bishop of the city in question, and not disrespectfully desert their own bishop, in accordance with the teaching imparted by the holy Fathers. As regards those who dare to defy any such formal ruling, in any manner whatever, and who refuse to submit to their own bishop, in case they are clergymen let them be liable to the penalties prescribed by the canons, but if they are monks or laymen, let them be excluded from communion."}, {"canon": 9, "text": "If any clergyman has a dispute with another, let him not leave his own bishop and resort to secular courts, but let him first submit his case to his own bishop, or let it be tried by referees chosen by both parties and approved by the bishop. Let anyone who acts contrary hereto be liable to canonical penalties. If, on the other hand, a clergyman has a dispute with his own bishop, or with some other bishop, let it be tried by the Synod of the province. But if any bishop or clergyman has a dispute with the metropolitan of the same province, let him apply either to the exarch of the diocese or to the throne of the imperial capital Constantinople, and let it be tried before him."}, {"canon": 10, "text": "Let no clergyman be entitled to be on the roll of the churches of two different churches at the same time, i.e., of that in which he was originally ordained, and of that to which he has resorted on the plea that it appeals to him more than the other because of its being a larger church, when in reality he is actuated by vainglory. As for those who do so, let them be reinstated in their own church, wherein they were originally ordained, and let them officiate there only. If, on the other hand, anyone has been already translated from one church to another, let him have nothing to do with the affairs of the former church, as regards the martyry connected to it, or the poorhouses, or the inns, administered by it. As for those who dare to do anything hereby prohibited, after the definition of this great and ecumenical Synod, this Holy Synod has decided that he shall forfeit his own rank."}, {"canon": 11, "text": "As for all those who are indigent and in need of assistance, upon proof, we have made it a rule that they are to travel only with pacific ecclesiastical letters, and not with recommendatory letters; for recommendatory letters are to be granted only to persons who are under suspicion."}, {"canon": 12, "text": "It has come to our knowledge that some persons, by resorting to the civil authorities, have obtained pragmatics whereby they have contrived to divide one province into two, contrary to the ecclesiastical canons, and as a result there are two metropolitans in one and the same province. The Holy Synod has therefore made it a rule that no bishop shall hereafter be allowed to do such a thing. For, if anyone shall attempt to do so, he shall forfeit his own rank. As for all those cities which have already been honored with the name of metropolis by letters of the emperor, let them enjoy only the honor, and likewise the bishop who is administering its church; it being left plain that the rights properly belonging to the real metropolis are to be preserved to this metropolis (alone)."}, {"canon": 13, "text": "Strange clergymen and anagnosts are not to be allowed to conduct services anywhere in a different city without having letters recommendatory from their own bishop."}, {"canon": 14, "text": "Inasmuch as anagnosts and chanters in some provinces have been permitted to marry, the Holy Synod has made it a rule that none of them shall be allowed to take a wife that is of a different faith. As for those who have already had children as a result of such a marriage, if they have already had their offspring baptized by heretics, let them bring them into the communion of the Orthodox Catholic Church. But if they have not baptized them, let them no longer have any right to baptize them with heretics, nor, indeed, even to contract a marriage with a heretic, or a Jew, or a Greek, unless they first promise and undertake to convert the person joined to the Orthodox Christian to the Orthodox faith. If, on the other hand, anyone transgresses this rule of the Holy Synod, let him be liable to a canonical penalty."}, {"canon": 15, "text": "Let no woman be ordained a deaconess before the age of forty, and even then after a strict test. But if she, after receiving the gift of chirothesy and remaining for some time in the ministry, proceeds to give herself in marriage, thus insulting the grace of God, let any such actress be anathematized together with the man who has joined himself with her in marriage."}, {"canon": 16, "text": "If any virgin has dedicated herself to the Lord God, or any men likewise have become monks, let them not be permitted to engage in marriage. If, however, they be found to be doing this, let them be denied communion, and be excluded from there. But we have made it a rule that the local bishop is to have control of kindliness in regard to the treatment of them."}, {"canon": 17, "text": "Concerning rural parishes, or country parishes, in any province, they shall remain in the undisputed possession of the bishops now holding them, and especially if they have held them in their possession and have managed them without coercion for thirty years or more. But if during a period of thirty years there has arisen or should arise some dispute concerning them, those claiming to have been unjustly treated shall be permitted to complain to the Synod of the province. But if anyone has been unjustly treated by his own metropolitan, let him complain to the Exarch of the diocese, or let him have his case tried before the throne of Constantinople, according as he may choose. If, on the other hand, any city has, been rebuilt by imperial authority, or has been built anew again, pursuant to civil and public formalities, let the order of the ecclesiastical parishes be followed."}, {"canon": 18, "text": "The crime of conspiracy, or of faction (by a group) already prohibited by secular laws, ought still more to be forbidden to appear in the Church of God. If, therefore, there be found any clergymen, or monastics, to be conspiring or to be engaged in factiousness of any kind, or hatching plots against bishops or fellow clergymen, they shall forfeit their own rank altogether."}, {"canon": 19, "text": "It has come to our ears that the canonically prescribed synods of bishops are not held in the provinces, and as a result of this fact many ecclesiastical matters in need of correction are neglected. The holy Synod, therefore, has made it a rule, in accordance with the canons of the Holy Fathers, for the bishops to meet twice a year in convention somewhere in each province, wherever the bishop of the metropolis designates, and for all matters to be corrected that may come up. As for those bishops, on the other hand, who fail to attend the meeting, but who, instead of doing so, remain at home in their respective cities, and lead their lives therein in good health and free from every indispensable and necessary occupation, they are to be reprimanded in a brotherly way."}, {"canon": 20, "text": "As we have already decreed, it is not permissible for clergymen officiating in a church to be given a church in another city; but, on the contrary, they must rest content with the one in which they were originally deemed worthy to conduct divine services: except those who have gone over to another church as a result of their having been forced to flee from their own country. If any bishop nevertheless admits a clergyman belonging to another bishop, after promulgation of this rule, it has been decided that both of them, i.e., the clergyman so admitted and the bishop admitting him, are to be excluded from communion until such time as the clergyman who has left his own city see fit to return to his own church."}, {"canon": 21, "text": "Clergymen or laymen accusing bishops or clergymen are not to be allowed to file charges against them promiscuously and without investigation until their own reputation has been examined into."}, {"canon": 22, "text": "Clergymen, after the death of their own bishop, shall not be allowed to seize his effects, as is prohibited even by the canons of old, on pain of being stripped of their own offices."}, {"canon": 23, "text": "It has come to the ears of the holy Synod that certain clergymen and monastics, without being handed any permission by their own bishop, and in fact, sometimes even after he has excluded them from communion, have resorted to the imperial city of Constantinople, and stay there a long time, causing disturbances and meddling the ecclesiastical situation, and engender upheavals in the households of some persons. Hence the holy Synod has decreed that they first be reminded, through the Defensor of the most holy Church of Constantinople, to take their departure from the imperial city. But if they impudently persist in doing the same things, they are to be expelled from the city even against their will through the same defensor, and are to betake themselves to their own regions."}, {"canon": 24, "text": "As for monasteries which have once been consecrated with the consent of the bishop, they are to remain monasteries perpetually, and the property owned by them is to be kept safe, and no more be permitted to serve as mundane haunts of vice. Those who permit this to occur are liable to the penalties provided by the canons."}, {"canon": 25, "text": "Whereas some metropolitans, as we have been informed, neglect the flocks committed to their care, and postpone the ordinations of bishops, the Holy Synod has decreed that they must perform ordinations within three months unless some unavoidable necessity require the time to be lengthened. If they fail to carry out this rule, they shall be liable to ecclesiastical penalties; and the means profits of the widow church shall be preserved to be retained by the steward (or oeconomus) of the same church."}, {"canon": 26, "text": "Since in some churches, as we have been informed, the bishops are administering the ecclesiastical affairs with the services of a steward, it has seemed most reasonable and right that each and every church that has a bishop should also have a steward selected from its own clergy to manage the ecclesiastical affairs of that particular church in accordance with the views and ideas of its own bishop, so as to provide against the administration of the church being unwitnessed, so as to prevent the property of the same church from being wasted as a result of such stewardless administration and to prevent any obloquy from attaching itself to Holy Orders."}, {"canon": 27, "text": "The Holy Synod has made it a rule regarding those who take women by force under pretense of marriage, and their accomplices and abettors, that if they should be clergymen, they shall forfeit their own rank, but if they are laymen, they shall be anathematized."}, {"canon": 28, "text": "Everywhere following the decrees of the Holy Fathers, and aware of the recently recognized canon of the one hundred and fifty most God-beloved bishops who convened during the reign of Theodosius the Great of pious memory, who became emperor in the imperial city of Constantinople otherwise known as New Rome; we too decree and vote the same things in regard to the privileges and priorities of the most holy Church of that same Constantinople and New Rome. And this is in keeping with the fact that the Fathers naturally enough granted the priorities to the throne of Old Rome on account of her being the imperial capital. And motivated by the same object and aim the one hundred and fifty most God-beloved bishops have accorded the like priorities to the most holy throne of New Rome, with good reason deeming that the city which is the seat of an empire, and of a senate, and is equal to old imperial Rome in respect of other privileges and priorities, should be magnified also as she is in respect of ecclesiastical affairs, as coming next after her, or as being second to her. And it is arranged so that only the metropolitans of the Pontic, Asian, and Thracian dioceses shall be ordained by the most holy throne of the most holy Church of Constantinople, aforesaid, and likewise the bishops of the aforesaid dioceses which are situated in barbarian lands; that is to say, that each metropolitan of the aforesaid dioceses, together with the bishops of the province, shall ordain the bishops of the province, just as is prescribed by the divine canons. But the metropolitans of the aforesaid dioceses, as has been said, are to be ordained by the Archbishop of Constantinople, after the elections have first been conducted in accordance with custom, and have been reported to him."}, {"canon": 29, "text": "For a bishop to bear the rank of priest is sacrilege. However, if any just reason determines their removal from practice as bishops, then neither ought they to occupy the position of priest. But if for any cause than some crime they have been deprived of the dignity and office, they shall be restored to the dignity and office of the episcopate."}, {"canon": 30, "text": "Whereas the most reverent bishops of Egypt postponed subscribing to the epistle of the most holy Archbishop Leo for the present, not because they opposed the catholic faith, but on the allegation that it is a custom in the diocese of Egypt to do nothing of this sort without the consent and formal approval of their archbishop, and therefore request to be excused until the one who is to be the bishop for the great city of the Alexandrians has been ordained: it has appeared to us reasonable and consonant with the spirit of philanthropy that they be excused and allowed to remain upon the like habit in the Imperial City till an archbishop has been ordained for the great city of the Alexandrians. Let them therefore give security that they will not leave this city till the city of the Alexandrians has been accommodated with a bishop."}]}}}
\ No newline at end of file
+{"_default": {"1": {"name": "apostles", "history": "", "canons": [{"canon": 1, "text": "Two or three other bishops are needed to ordain a bishop."}, {"canon": 2, "text": "A priest must be ordained by a single bishop, and so must a deacon and other clergymen."}, {"canon": 3, "text": "If any bishop or priest, contrary to the Lord's ordinance relating to sacrifice, offers anything else at the sacrificial altar, whether it be honey, or milk, or artificial liquor instead of wine, chickens, or any kind of animal, or vegetables, contrary to the ordinance, let him be deposed: except ears of new wheat or bunches of grapes, in due season. Let it not be permissible to bring anything else to the sacrificial altar but oil for the lamp, and incense at the time of the holy oblation."}, {"canon": 4, "text": "Let all other fruit be sent home to the bishop and priests as first fruits, but not to the sacrificial altar. It is understood that the bishop and priests shall distribute a fair share to the deacons and other clergymen."}, {"canon": 5, "text": "No bishop, priest, or deacon shall divorce his own wife under pretext of reverence. If he divorces her, let him be excommunicated; and if he persist in so doing, let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 6, "text": "A bishop, or priest, or deacon must not undertake worldly cares. If he does, let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 7, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon celebrate the holy day of Pascha before the vernal equinox with the Jews, let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 8, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon, or anyone else in the clerical list, fail to partake of communion when the oblation has been offered, he must tell the reason; and if it is a good excuse, he shall receive a pardon. But if he refuses to tell it, he shall be excommunicated, on the ground that he has become a cause of harm to the laity and has instilled a suspicion against the one offering of it, that the latter has failed to present it in a sound manner."}, {"canon": 9, "text": "All those faithful who enter and listen to the Scriptures, but do not stay for prayer and Holy Communion must be excommunicated, on the ground that they are causing the Church a breach of order."}, {"canon": 10, "text": "One who prays with the excommunicant, shall himself be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 11, "text": "A clergyman who prays in company with a deposed clergyman shall also be deposed."}, {"canon": 12, "text": "If any clergyman, or laymen, who has been excommunicated, or who has not been admitted to repentance, shall go away and be received in another city, without commendatory letters, both the receiver and the one received shall be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 13, "text": "If he has been excommunicated let his excommunication be augmented, on the grounds that he has lied and that he has deceived the Church of God."}, {"canon": 14, "text": "A bishop shall not abandon his own parish and go outside of it to interlope to another one, even though urged by a number of persons to go there, unless there be a good reason for doing so, on the grounds that he can be of greater help to the inhabitants there, by reason of his piety. And even then he must not do so of his own accord, but in obedience to the judgment of many bishops, and at their urgent request."}, {"canon": 15, "text": "If any priest, or deacon, or anyone at all on the list of clerics, abandoning his own province, departs to another, and after deserting it entirely, sojourns in another, contrary to the mind of his own bishop, we bid him to officiate no longer; especially if his bishop summons him to return, and he has not obeyed and persists in his disorderliness; however, he may commune there as layman."}, {"canon": 16, "text": "On the other hand, if the bishop with whom they are associating, admits them as clergymen in defiance of the deprivation prescribed against them, he shall be excommunicated as a teacher of disorder."}, {"canon": 17, "text": "Whoever has entered into two marriages after baptism, or has possessed himself of a mistress, cannot be a bishop, or a priest, or a deacon, or anything else in the list of clerics."}, {"canon": 18, "text": "No one who has taken a widow, or a divorced woman, or a harlot, or a housemaid, or any actress as his wife, may be a bishop, or a priest, or a deacon, or hold any other position at all in the clerical list."}, {"canon": 19, "text": "Whoever marries two sisters, or a niece, may not be a clergyman."}, {"canon": 20, "text": "Any clergyman that gives himself as security shall be deposed."}, {"canon": 21, "text": "A eunuch, whether he became such by influence of men, or was deprived of his virile parts under persecution, or was born thus, may, if he is worthy, become a bishop."}, {"canon": 22, "text": "Let no one who has mutilated himself become a clergyman; for he is a murderer of himself, and an enemy of God's creation."}, {"canon": 23, "text": "If anyone who is a clergyman should mutilate himself, let him be deposed, for he is a self-murderer."}, {"canon": 24, "text": "Any layman who has mutilated himself shall be excommunicated for three years, for he is a plotter against his own life."}, {"canon": 25, "text": "Any bishop, or priest, or deacon that is taken in the act of committing fornication, or perjury, or theft, shall be deposed, but shall not be excommunicated, for Scripture says: \"You shall not exact revenge twice for the same offense.\" The same rule applies also to the rest of clergymen."}, {"canon": 26, "text": "As to bachelors who have entered the clergy, we allow only readers and chanters to marry if they wish to do so."}, {"canon": 27, "text": "As for a bishop, or priest, or deacon that strikes believers for sinning, or unbelievers for wrong-doing, with the idea of making them afraid, we command that he be deposed. For the Lord has nowhere taught that; on the contrary, He Himself when struck did not strike back; when reviled, He did not revile His revilers; when suffering, He did not threaten."}, {"canon": 28, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon, who has been justly deposed for proven crimes, should dare to touch the Liturgy which had once been put in his hands, let him be cut off from the Church altogether."}, {"canon": 29, "text": "If any bishop become the recipient of this office by means of money, or any priest, or any deacon, let him be deposed as well as the one who ordained him, and let him be cut off entirely even from communion, as was Simon the Sorcerer by me, Peter."}, {"canon": 30, "text": "If any bishop comes into possession of a church by employing secular rulers, let him be deposed, and let him be excommunicated, and also all those who communicate with him."}, {"canon": 31, "text": "If any priest, condemning his own bishop, draws people aside, and sets up another altar, without finding anything wrong with the bishop in point of piety and justice, let him be deposed, on the ground that he is desirous of power. For he is a tyrant; and let the rest of the clergymen and all those who abet him be treated in the same manner. But let the laymen be excommunicated. Let these things be done after one, and a second, and a third request of the bishop."}, {"canon": 32, "text": "If any bishop excommunicates any priest or deacon, these men must not be received by anyone except the one who excommunicated them, unless by a coincidence the bishop who excommunicated them should decease."}, {"canon": 33, "text": "None of the foreign bishops, priests or deacons shall be received without commendatory letters. Even when they bear such, they shall be examined. And if they really are preachers of piety, they shall be received; but if they are not, after furnishing them with any necessities, they shall not be admitted to communion. For many things are done with a view toward plunder."}, {"canon": 34, "text": "It befits us bishops of every nation to know the one among them who is the premier or chief, and to recognize him as their head, and to refrain from doing anything superfluous without his advice and approval: but, instead each of them should do only whatever is necessitated by his own parish, and by the territories under him. Let not even such a one do anything without the advice, consent and approval of all. For thus will there be concord, and God will be glorified through the Lord in Holy Spirit, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."}, {"canon": 35, "text": "A bishop shall not dare to confer ordinations outside of his own boundaries, in cities and territories not subject to him. If he is proved to have done so against the wishes of those having possession of those cities or territories, let him be deposed, as well as those whom he ordained."}, {"canon": 36, "text": "In case any bishop who has been ordained refuses the office and the care of the laity, which has been entrusted to him, he shall be excommunicated and remain so until such time as he accepts it. This also applies to a priest and deacon. But if upon departing, he fail to accept it, not contrary to his own inclination, but because of the spitefulness of the laity, let him be a bishop, but let the clergy of that city be excommunicated, since no one can correct such an insubordinate laity."}, {"canon": 37, "text": "Twice a year let a synod of bishops be held, and let them examine one another in regards to dogmas of piety, and let incidental ecclesiastical contradictions be eliminated: the first one, in the fourth week of Pentecost; the second one, on the twelfth of Hyperberetaeus (October)."}, {"canon": 38, "text": "Let the bishop have the care of all ecclesiastical matters and let him manage them, with the understanding that God is overseeing and supervising. Let him not be allowed to appropriate anything from this or to give God's things to his relatives. If they be indigent, let him provide for them as indigents, but let him not trade off things of the Church under this pretext."}, {"canon": 39, "text": "Let priests and deacons do nothing without the consent of the bishop. For he is the one entrusted with the Lord's people, and it is from him that an accounting will be demanded with respect to their souls."}, {"canon": 40, "text": "Let the bishop's own property (if indeed he has any) be publicly known, and let the Lord's be publicly known. In order that the bishop may have authority to dispose of his own property when he dies, and leave it to whomever he wishes and as he wishes. And lest, by reason of any pretext of ecclesiastical property, the property of the bishop be mixed and buried therein and that he may have a wife and children, relatives or house servants. For it is only just with God and men that neither the church should suffer any loss owing to ignorance of the bishop's property, nor the bishop, or his relatives, should have their property confiscated on the pretext that it belonged to the church.
Or even to have trouble with those who are quarreling over his property, and to have his death involved in aspersions."}, {"canon": 41, "text": "We command that the bishop have authority over the property of the church. For if the precious souls of men ought to be entrusted to him, there is little need of any special injunction concerning money; so that everything may be entrusted to be governed in accordance with his authority, and he may grant to those in need through the priests and deacons with fear of God and all reverence; while he himself may partake thereof whatever he needs (if he needs anything) for his necessary needs, and for brethren who are his guests, so as not to deprive them of anything, in any manner. For God's law has enjoined that those who serve at the altar are to be maintained at the altar's expense. The more so in view of the fact that not even a soldier ever bears arms against belligerents at his own expense."}, {"canon": 42, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon wastes his time by playing dice, or getting drunk, either let him desist from this or let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 43, "text": "Let any subdeacon, or readers, or psalti, who does similar things either desist or be excommunicated. This applies to any layman."}, {"canon": 44, "text": "Let any bishop or priest or deacon who demands interest on money lent to others either cease doing so or be deposed."}, {"canon": 45, "text": "Let any bishop, or priest, or deacon that only joins in prayer with heretics be suspended, but if he has permitted them to perform any service as clergy let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 46, "text": "We order any bishop or priest, that has accepted any heretic's baptism or sacrifice be deposed; for \"what consonance has Christ with Belial? Or what part has the believer with an unbeliever?\""}, {"canon": 47, "text": "If a bishop or priest baptize anew anyone that has had a true baptism, or fail to baptize anyone that has been polluted by the impious, let him be deposed, on the ground that he is mocking the Cross and Death of the Lord and for failing to distinguish priests from pseudo-priests."}, {"canon": 48, "text": "If any layman who has divorced his wife takes another, or one divorced by another man, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 49, "text": "If any bishop or priest baptize anyone not into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in accordance with the Lord's ordinance, but into three beginningless beings or into three sons or into three comforters, let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 50, "text": "If any bishop or priest does not perform three immersions (baptisms) in making one baptism, but only a single immersion (baptism) that given into the death of the Lord, let him be deposed. For the Lord did not say, Baptize into my death, but, \"Go you and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.\""}, {"canon": 51, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon, or anyone at all on the holy list, abstain from marriage, or meat, or wine, not as a matter of mortification, but out of an abhorrence thereof, forgetting that all things are exceedingly good, and that God made man male and female, but blasphemously misrepresenting God's work of creation, either let him correct and purge his ways or let him be excluded from the Church. The same applies to a layman."}, {"canon": 52, "text": "If any bishop or priest shall refuse to welcome back anyone returning from sin, but on the contrary, rejects him, let him be deposed, since he grieves Christ, who said: \"There is joy in heaven over a single sinner who repents.\""}, {"canon": 53, "text": "If any bishop, priest or deacon, on the days of feasts will not partake of meat and wine, because he loathes these things, and not on account of asceticism, let him be deposed, on the ground that he has his own conscience seared and has become a cause of scandal to many."}, {"canon": 54, "text": "If any clergyman be discovered eating in a tavern let him be excommunicated, except only in case it he happens to be at a wayside inn where he puts up out of necessity."}, {"canon": 55, "text": "If any clergyman should insult the bishop let him be deposed. For \"you shall not speak badly about your people's ruler.\""}, {"canon": 56, "text": "If any clergyman should insult a priest or a deacon, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 57, "text": "If any clergyman ridicules the lame, or the deaf or the blind or the crippled, let him be excommunicated. The same applies to a layman."}, {"canon": 58, "text": "If any bishop or priest neglects the clergy or the laity, and neglects to instruct them in piety, let him be excommunicated: but if he persists in his negligence and indolence, let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 59, "text": "If any bishop or priest fails to supply necessities when any of the clergy is in want, let him be excommunicated. If he persists, let him be deposed, as having murdered his brother."}, {"canon": 60, "text": "If anyone reads to the public in churches, the books of impious writers bearing false inscriptions and purporting to be holy, to the injury of laity and clergy, let him be deposed."}, {"canon": 61, "text": "If a charge of fornication, or of adultery, or of any other forbidden act be brought against one of the faithful, and be proved, let him not be promoted to the clergy."}, {"canon": 62, "text": "If any clergyman, for fear of any man, whether a Jew or a Greek or a heretic, should deny the name of Christ, let him be cast out; or if he deny the name of clergyman, let him be deposed; and if he repent, let him be accepted as a layman."}, {"canon": 63, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon, and all on the clerical list, eat meat in the blood of its soul, or that which a wild beast has killed, or that which has died a natural death, let him be deposed. For the Law has forbidden this. But if any layman do this, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 64, "text": "If any clergyman is found to be fasting on the Lord's Day (Sunday), or on Saturday with the exception of one only, let him be deposed. If he is a layman, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 65, "text": "If any clergyman, or layman, enter a synagogue of Jews or of heretics to pray, let him be both deposed and excommunicated."}, {"canon": 66, "text": "If any clergyman strikes anyone in a fight, and kills by a single blow, let him be deposed for his insolence. But if he is a layman, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 67, "text": "If anyone is keeping a virgin whom he has forcibly raped and who is not promised to another, let him be excommunicated. And let it not be permissible for him to take another, but let him be obliged to keep her whom he has made his choice even though she happens to be indigent."}, {"canon": 68, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon accepts a second ordination from anyone, let him and the one who ordained him be deposed, unless it be established that his ordination has been performed by heretics. For those who have been baptized or ordained by such persons cannot possibly be either faithful Christians or clergymen."}, {"canon": 69, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon, or subdeacon, readers, or psalti fails to fast throughout the forty days of the Great Fast, or on Wednesday, or on Friday, let him be deposed, unless he has been prevented from doing so by reason of bodily illness. If, on the other hand, any layman fail to do so, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 70, "text": "If any bishop, priest, or deacon, or anyone at all who is on the list of clergymen, fast together with Jews, or celebrates a holiday together with them, or accepts from them holiday gifts or favors, such as unleavened wafers, or anything of the like, let him be deposed. If a layman do likewise, however, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 71, "text": "If any Christian conveys oil to a temple of heathen, or to a synagogue of Jews, in their festivals, or lights lamps for them, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 72, "text": "If any clergyman, or layman, takes a wax candle or any oil from the holy church, let him be excommunicated and be compelled to give back what he took, together with a fifth part of its value as well."}, {"canon": 73, "text": "Let no one appropriate any longer for his own use any golden or silver vessel that has been sanctified, or any cloth: for it is unlawful to do so. If anyone be caught in the act, let him be punished with excommunication."}, {"canon": 74, "text": "When trustworthy men have accused a bishop of something, bishops must summon him; and if he answers and confesses, or is found guilty, let the penalty be fixed. But if when summoned he refuses to obey, let him be summoned a second time by sending two bishops to him. If even then he refuses to obey, let him be summoned a third time, two bishops again being sent to him; but if even then he shows contempt and fails to answer, let the synod decide the matter against him in whatever way seems best, so that it may not seem that he is getting the benefit by evading a trial."}, {"canon": 75, "text": "No heretic shall be accepted as a witness against a bishop, but neither shall one faithful alone: for \"every charge shall be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses.\""}, {"canon": 76, "text": "It is decreed that no bishop shall be allowed to ordain whomsoever he wishes to the office of the Episcopate as a matter of concession to a brother, or to a son, or to a relative. For it is not right for heirs to the Episcopate to be created, by subjecting God's things to human passion; for God's Church ought not to be entrusted to heirs. If anyone shall do this, let the ordination remain invalid and void, and let the bishop himself be penalized with excommunication."}, {"canon": 77, "text": "If any cripple, or anyone with a defect in an eye or in a leg, is worthy of the episcopate, let him be made a bishop, for it is not an injury to the body that defiles one, but a pollution of the soul."}, {"canon": 78, "text": "Let no one that is deaf nor anyone that is blind be made a bishop, not on the ground that he is deficient morally, but lest he should be embarrassed in the exercise of ecclesiastical functions."}, {"canon": 79, "text": "If anyone is possessed of a demon, let him not be made a clergyman, nor even be allowed to pray in company with the faithful. But after he has been cleansed from it, let him be received, and if worthy be made one."}, {"canon": 80, "text": "It is not right to ordain a man a bishop immediately after he has joined the Church and been baptized, if he has hitherto been leading a heathenish life, or has been converted from wicked behavior. For it is wrong to let one without experience become the teacher of others, unless in some special case this be allowed as a matter of divine favor and grace."}, {"canon": 81, "text": "We have said that a bishop, or a priest, must not descend himself into public offices, but must attend to ecclesiastical needs. Either let he be persuaded, therefore, not to do so, or let him be deposed. For no one can serve two masters, according to the Lord's injunction."}, {"canon": 82, "text": "We do not permit house servants to be ordained to the clergy without the consent of their masters, to the sorrow of the masters owning them. For such a thing causes an upheaval in the households. But if any house servant should appear to be worthy to be ordained to any rank, as our own Onesimus did, and their masters are willing to permit it, and grant them their freedom (by liberating them from slavery), and allow them to leave home, let him be so ordained."}, {"canon": 83, "text": "If any bishop, or priest, or deacon is engaged in military matters, and wishes to hold both a Roman (i.e. civil) and a holy office, let him be deposed. For \"render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.\""}, {"canon": 84, "text": "If anyone insults an emperor or king, or any other ruler, contrary to what is right and just, let him pay the penalty. Accordingly, if he is a clergyman, let him be deposed; but if he is a layman, let him be excommunicated."}, {"canon": 85, "text": "To all you clergymen and laymen let the following books be venerable and holy: Of the Old Covenant, the five of Moses, namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; the one of Jesus of Nave (commonly called Joshua in English); the one of Judges; the one of Ruth; the four of the Kingdoms; two Chronicles of the Book of Days; two of Esdras; one of Esther; three of the Maccabees; one of Job; one Psalter (Psalms); three of Solomon, namely, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs; twelve of the Prophets; one of Isaiah; one of Jeremiah; one of Ezekiel; one of Daniel; outside of these it is permissible for you to recount in addition thereto also the Wisdom of very learned Sirach by way of teaching your younger folks.
Our own books, that is to say, those of the New Covenant, comprising four Gospels, namely, that of Matthew, of Mark, of Luke, and of John; fourteen Epistles of Paul; two Epistles of Peter, three Epistles of John; one of James; one of Jude; two Epistles of Clement; and the Injunctions addressed to you bishops through me, Clement, in eight books, which ought not to be divulged to all on account of the secret matters they contain) and the Acts of us Apostles."}]}, "3": {"name": "1nicaea", "history": "The First holy Ecumenical Synod was held in Nicaea in Bithynia during the reign of Constantine the Great, A.D. 325. Outstanding men who attended it were Alexander the patriarch of Constantinople, Biton and Bicentius the priests, together with the devout one of Cordova, Spain, the three taken together who held the position of bishops, Silvester of Rome, and Julius, Alexander of Alexandria, who was competing with Athanasios the Great, who was then a deacon, Eustathios the patriarch of Antioch, Macarios the patriarch of Jerusalem, Paphnutios and Spyridon, James and Maximus—men adorned with apostolic gifts, and sufferings of martyrdom; and numerous others; according to the common and universally admitted tradition of the Church there were 318 in all. But besides them there were also another multitude of clergymen, priests, and deacons. This Synod was assembled against Arius, who was blaspheming that the Son and Logos of God was not of the same essence as the Father (or, as in Greek, coessential with the Father),and that consequently He was not a true God, but, on the contrary, a creature and \"ctisma,\" a Greek word meaning \"something built.\" It lasted three and a half years (though Gelasius, quoted by Photius in Anagnosma, says six and a half years), and delivered the common and divine and sacred Symbol of our faith which is well known to all and in which it proclaimed the Son and Logos of God to be a true God coessential with the Father, that is, a God having the same essence and nature as the Father, and consequently also the same glory, and authority, and lordship, and eternity, and all other Godlike peculiarities of divine nature. It is worded as follows: \"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty and the Creator of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father—that is, out of the essence of the Father, a God out of God, light out of light, true God out of 415 true God, begotten, not created, coessential with the Father and through whom all things were made, including all things in heaven and all things on earth; and who for us men and for our salvation came down, was incarnate and became man; He suffered; and rose on the third day, and ascended into the heavens, and is sitting at the right hand of the Father; who is coming again to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit; As for those who say that there was a time when He was not, and that He was not existent until He was born, and who allege that He was made out of non-beings, or out of some other substance or essence, or that the Son of God is mutable or alterable, the catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes them. Theodore of Jerusalem called this Symbol the correct confession of faith; St. Damasos I, bishop of Rome, called it a wall thwarting the weapons of the Devil. And, in general, it is called by all the Church the characteristic standard and the banner of the Orthodox, by means whereof they, as true soldiers of Christ, can be distinguished from the enemies of Christ and from those who, though hypocritically professing the name of Christ, are in reality false brethren and misbelievers. Even soldiers distinguish their fellow soldiers from their enemies and adversaries by means of a symbol called a standard, or flag. Hence it was that the word symbol as denoting a military standard was employed in a transferred sense as the name of that which is called the Symbol of the Faith. It also delivered the decree concerning Pascha which the catholic Eastern Church now observes precisely (concerning which see Apostolic Canon VII and Canon I of Antioch). Also, it issued also the present twenty Holy Canons, indefinitely confirmed by Canon I of the 4th Ecumenical Synod, but definitely by Canon II, of the 6th Ecumenical Synod and Canon I of the 7th Ecumenical Synod. Note, however, that the records of this First Ecumenical Synod are not extant, either in Greek or in Latin, but only whatever Eusebius of Pamphilus, Rufiuus, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Jerome, and others have affirmed, and principally and especially what has been handed down by Gelasius I (Cyzicenus), who wrote in the reign of Emperor Zeno in the year 476 and afterwards served as bishop of Caesarea in Palestine (see Volume I page 151, of the Collection of the Synods). These fragments, I say, which the abovementioned writers and Gelasius I have left us are all that is still extant. Nicetas Acominatus, or Choniates, calls the work written by Gelasius I records, but Photios says that it is a historical account rather than a record of the proceedings; John Cyparissiotes also mentions it (see Dositheos, page 108 of the Dodecabiblus).", "canons": [{"canon": 1, "text": "If anyone has been castrated by surgeons for a disease, or has been castrated by barbarians, let him remain in the clergy. But if anyone has castrated himself when well, he must be dismissed even if he is examined after being in the clergy. And henceforth no such person must be promoted to Holy Orders. But as is self-evident, though such is the case as regards those who affect the matter and dare to castrate themselves, if any persons have become eunuchs by barbarians or their lords, but are otherwise found to be worthy, the canon admits such persons to the clergy."}, {"canon": 2, "text": "Inasmuch as many things, whether of necessity or otherwise are urgently demanded by men or have been demanded by men, have been done contrary to the ecclesiastical canon so that men who have but recently come to the faith from a heathen life and have been catechized for only a short time, have been conducted directly to the spiritual bath; and as soon as baptized have been given an episcopate or the priesthood, it has seemed well henceforth to have no such thing occur. For the catechumen needs more time and a longer trial after baptism. The Apostolic letter is also plain which says, \"not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he falls into the Devil's snare\". If, on the other hand, in the course of time any psychical [Greek psyhikos; pertaining to the soul, that is, the mind, the heart and will] sin is found against the person, and it is exposed by two or three witnesses, let such a person be dismissed from the clergy. As for anyone acting contrary hereto, as having the hardihood to do things opposed to the great Synod, he himself shall be in danger of losing his standing in the clergy."}, {"canon": 3, "text": "The great Synod has generally forbidden any bishop, priest or deacon, or anyone else among those in the clergy, the privilege of having a housekeeper; unless she is either a mother, a sister, an aunt, or a person above suspicion."}, {"canon": 4, "text": "It is most proper that a bishop should be installed by all those in his province. But if such a thing is difficult either because of the urgency of circumstances, or because of the distance to be traveled, at least three should meet together somewhere, and by their votes combined with the votes of those who are absent and join in the election by letter, they should thereafter carry out the ordination. But as for the ratification of the proceedings, let it be entrusted in each province to the metropolitan."}, {"canon": 5, "text": "As regards those who have been denied communion, whether clergy or laity, by the bishops in every eparchy, let the opinion prevail expressed in the canon prescribing that those rejected by some are not to be received by others. But let an investigation be made as to whether or not they have been unchurched on account of smallness of soul or contentiousness or any other such repugnancy of the bishop. In order, therefore, that a proper investigation may be made, it has seemed well that synods be held twice every year. In each eparchy and in a common discussion held by all the bishops of the eparchy assembled together. For this purpose let such questions be considered and decided upon. And thus those who have admittedly clashed with the bishop would seem to be reasonably excluded from communion until such time as by common consent of the bishops it may seem better to let a more philanthropic vote be given in their behalf. As for these synods, let one of them be held before the Great Fast, in order that, with the elimination of all smallness of soul, the gift may be offered to God in all its purity; and let the second one be held sometime in autumn."}, {"canon": 6, "text": "Let the ancient customs prevail which were in practice in Egypt, Libya and Pentapolis, to allow the Bishop of Alexandria to have authority over all these parts, since this is also the treatment usually accorded to the Bishop of Rome. Likewise with reference to Antioch, and in other provinces, let the seniority be preserved to the Churches. In general it is obvious that in the case in which anyone has been made a bishop without the metropolitan's approval, the great Synod has prescribed that such a person must not be a bishop. If however, concerning the common vote of all, though reasonable and in accordance with an ecclesiastical canon, two or three men object on account of contentiousness, let the vote of the majority prevail."}, {"canon": 7, "text": "Inasmuch as a custom has prevailed, and an ancient tradition, for the Bishop in Aelia [Jerusalem] to be honored, let him have the sequence of honor, with the metropolitan having his own dignity preserved."}, {"canon": 8, "text": "As concerning those who call themselves Cathari and who are claiming to be adherents of the catholic and apostolic Church, it has seemed right to the holy and great Synod, when they have had hands laid upon them, to let them remain in the clergy. Above all, that it is fitting for them to confess to this in uniting, to wit, that they will agree to and will adhere to the dogmas of the catholic and apostolic Church. That is, that they will hold communion with persons married a second time, and with those who in time of persecution have lapsed from the faith; regarding whom a length of time has been fixed, and a due season has been set for their repentance.
This is so that they may adhere to the dogmas of the Catholic Church in everything. Wherever they are the only ones found to have been ordained, whether in villages or in cities, they shall remain in the same habit (or order). But wherever there is a bishop of the Catholic Church, where some of them [cathari] are joining it, it is obvious that, as the bishop of the Church will keep the dignity of bishop, the one called a bishop among the so-called Cathari shall have the honor of a priest, unless it should seem better to the bishop that he should share in the honor of the name. But if this does not please him, he shall devise a position either of a chorepiscopus or of a priest, with the object of having him seems to be wholly in the clergy, or else there would then be two bishops in the same city."}, {"canon": 9, "text": "If some persons have been promoted to the priesthood without due examination, or when given a hearing confessed their sins to them, and after they confessed, these men, acting contrary to the canon, laid hands upon such persons, the canon will not admit them. For the Catholic Church insists upon irreproachability."}, {"canon": 10, "text": "As many persons as have been guilty of serious lapses and have been ordained in ignorance thereof or even after the ordainers have become aware thereof, they will not be admitted under the ecclesiastical canon. For when they have become known, they shall be deposed."}, {"canon": 11, "text": "Concerning those who have transgressed without any need, without being deprived of goods, without being in any peril or in any such strait as occurred during the tyranny of Licinius, it has seemed fit to the Synod to be kind to them, even though they did not deserve philanthropic treatment. As many, therefore, as sincerely repent with remorse shall pass three years among listeners as believers, and seven years as kneelers. In addition; for two years without communicating with the offering, they may pray with the people."}, {"canon": 12, "text": "As for those persons who were summoned by grace, and after displaying a preliminary enthusiasm and taking off their [army] belts, they returned like dogs to their vomit, in such a way that some of them even wasted money in an effort to re-establish themselves in the army by means of beneficial (a Latin word meaning gift), let them be kneelers for ten years after devoting three years as listeners. But in addition to all these requirements it is requisite to examine into the will (or inclinations) and the kind of repentance. For as regards all those who with fear, and tears, and patience, and the doing of good to others have displayed proofs of their conversion by actual performance and not by mere pretense, after they have fulfilled the time fixed for their listening period, they shall participate in prayers unrestrictedly, with the further concession of a right to the bishop to devise some more philanthropic treatment regarding them. But as for those who acted unconcernedly, and who thought the pretense of going to church a sufficient proof of their conversion, let them fulfill the time to the utmost limit."}, {"canon": 13, "text": "Concerning those who are exiting [from life, by dying], the old and canonical Law shall be kept even now, so that, if anyone is exiting, he should not be deprived of the necessary support [Divine Mystery]. However, when all hope is gone and he has been given communion, if he again is found among the living, let him stay with those who participate in prayer only. In general, moreover, as concerning anyone at all that is on the verge of making his exit, if he asks to partake of the Eucharist, let the bishop examine him and then impart the oblation."}, {"canon": 14, "text": "Concerning catechumens and lapsers, it has seemed proper to the holy great Synod to let them off with only three years' listening and to allow them thereafter to pray together with catechumens."}, {"canon": 15, "text": "Because of much disturbance and the mutinies which took place, it has seemed best to do away altogether with the custom which obtained contrary to the Apostolic canon in some places, so as not to allow either a bishop or a priest or a deacon to go from one city to another. If after the holy and great Synod's definition, anyone should attempt to do such a thing, or has actually undertaken to do such a thing, let the resulting affair be invalidated by all means, and let him be reinstated in the church in which the bishop or priest in question was ordained."}, {"canon": 16, "text": "Any priests or deacons, or other persons covered by the canon, who take the risk, without having the fear of God before their eyes, or keeping aware of the ecclesiastical canon, of departing from their own church, they must not be admitted at all in another church, but they must be strictly forced to return to their own parish, or, in case they insist, it is proper for them to be excluded from Communion. If on the other hand, anyone should surreptitiously snatch away one belonging to another and ordain him in his own church, without the consent of his bishop, from whom the one covered by the canon departed, let the ordination be invalid."}, {"canon": 17, "text": "Because of the fact that many persons covered by the canon, out of greed and in pursuit of shameful gain (willfully) forgot the divine passage of Holy Scripture saying \"who has not lent out his money at interest,\" and in lending demanded a profit, the holy and great Synod has deemed it just and right that in case anyone is found after the adoption of this definition receiving interest for the use of money, or otherwise exploiting the matter, or demanding commission, or through any other subterfuge contriving to exact shameful profits, he shall be deposed from the clergy and shall be an alien to the canon."}, {"canon": 18, "text": "It has come to the notice of the holy and great Synod that in some regions and cities deacons are giving the Eucharist to priests, which is something that neither the canon nor custom has allowed those who have not the authority to offer, to give the Body of Christ to those offering it. It has also further been learned that already some deacons touch the Eucharist even before the bishops. Let all these things, therefore, be done away with, and let deacons conform to their own standards, well knowing that they are servants of the bishop, and that they are inferior to priests. Let them take the Eucharist in due order after the priests, with either the bishop or the priests administering it to them. But neither let it be permissible for deacons to sit among priests for to do so is contrary to the canon, and is contrary to due order: if in this disregard of these definitions, anyone refuses to obey, let him be dismissed from his diaconate."}, {"canon": 19, "text": "Concerning the Paulianists who afterwards took refuge in the Catholic Church, it is established that they be rebaptized without fail. If in the past any of them have been covered [ordained] in the clergy, if under close examination are shown to be blameless and irreproachable, after rebaptism let them be ordained by a Bishop of the Orthodox Catholic Church. But if the investigation finds them unfit, let them be deposed. Likewise as concerning deaconesses, and all those who are embraced by the canon in any way and are being examined, the same form shall be observed. We have referred to the deaconesses who have been examined under cover of the habit, since they have neither any claim to appointment to any order, so that they are to be examined without fail among the laymen."}, {"canon": 20, "text": "Since there are some persons who kneel in church on the Lord's Day and on the days of Pentecost, with a view to preserving uniformity in all parishes, it has seemed best to the Holy Synod for prayers to be offered to God while standing."}]}, "4": {"name": "1const", "history": "", "canons": [{"canon": 1, "text": "The Holy Fathers assembled in Constantinople have decided not to set aside the faith of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers who met in Nicaea, Bithynia, but to let it remain sovereign, and that every heresy be anathematized, and especially and specifically that of the Eunomians, including that of the Adhesions, and that of the Semi-Arians, including that of the Pneumatomachs, and that of the Sabellians, and that of the Marcellians, and that of the Photinians, and that of the Apollinarians."}, {"canon": 2, "text": "Bishops must not leave their own diocese and go over to churches beyond its boundaries; but, on the contrary, in accordance with the Canons, let the Bishop of Alexandria administer the affairs of Egypt only, let the bishops of the East govern the Eastern Church only, the priorities granted to the church of the Antiochians in the Nicene canons being kept inviolate, and let the bishops of the Asian diocese administer only the affairs of the Asian church, and let those of the Pontic diocese look after the diocese of Pontus only, and let those of the Thracian diocese manage the affairs of the Thracian diocese only. Let bishops not go beyond their own province to carry out an ordination or any other ecclesiastical services unless summoned there. When the canon prescribed in regard to dioceses is duly kept; it is evident that the synod of each province will confine itself to the affairs of that particular province, in accordance with the regulations decreed in Nicaea. But the churches of God that are situated in territories belonging to barbarian nations must be administered in accordance with the customary practice of the Fathers."}, {"canon": 3, "text": "Let the Bishop of Constantinople, however, have the priorities of honor after the Bishop of Rome, because of its being New Rome."}, {"canon": 4, "text": "As concerning Maximus the Cynic, and the disturbance caused by him in Constantinople, it is hereby decreed that Maximus neither became nor is a bishop, and that neither are those ordained by him entitled to hold any clerical rank whatsoever. Let everything connected with him or done by him be annulled."}, {"canon": 5, "text": "As concerning the Tome of the Westerners, we have accepted also those in Antioch who confess a single divinity of Father and of Son and of Holy Spirit."}, {"canon": 6, "text": "Because many men, in a spirit of enmity and for purposes of slander being desirous to confound and subvert ecclesiastical discipline, connive to fabricate certain charges against Orthodox bishops managing the churches, in an attempt designing nothing else but to sully the reputation of the priests, and to raise disturbances among peoples who are at peace; on this account it has pleased the holy Synod of the bishops who have convened in Constantinople to decree that informers are not to be admitted without examination, nor are all men to be allowed to bring accusations against those managing the churches, nor yet are all to be excluded. But if anyone lay a personal grievance, that is, a private complaint, against a bishop, on the ground that he has been a victim of the bishop's greed or other unjust treatment, in the case of such accusations neither the personality nor the religion of the accuser is to be inquired into. For then the conscience of the bishop must be clear in every respect, and the man who claims to have been wronged should receive justice whatever be his religion. But if the indictment brought against the bishop be of an ecclesiastical nature, then the personality of the informers must be considered, in order, first of all, not to allow heretics to make charges against Orthodox bishops in regard to ecclesiastical matters. We call heretics those who have of old been proscribed from the Church and those who have thereafter been anathematized by us; and in addition those who though pretending to confess the sound faith, have schismatically separated and have gathered congregations in opposition to our canonical bishops. Further, as regarding those who have previously been condemned by the Church on certain charges and have been ousted from this or excluded from Communion, whether they belong to the clergy or to the ranks of laymen, neither shall these persons be allowed to accuse a bishop until they have first cleared themselves of their own indictment. Likewise as regarding those who themselves previously been accused, they are not to be permitted to accuse a bishop, or other clergymen, until they have first proved themselves innocent of the charges placed against them. If however, certain persons are neither heretics nor excluded from Communion, nor condemned, nor previously charged with any offenses, should declare that they have an accusation of an ecclesiastical nature against a bishop, the holy Synod bids these persons to lodge their accusations before all the bishops of the province and before them to prove the charges against the bishop involved in the case. But if it so happen that the provincial Bishops are unable or incompetent to decide the case against the bishop and make the correction due, then they are to go to a greater synod of the bishops of this diocese summoned to try this case. And they are not to lodge the accusation until they themselves have in writing agreed to incur the same penalty if in the course of the trial it be proved that they have been slandering the accused bishop. But if anyone, scorning what has been decreed in the foregoing statements, should dare either to annoy the emperor's ears or to trouble courts of secular authorities or an ecumenical synod to the disturbance of all the bishops of the diocese, let no such person be allowed to present any information whatever, because of his having thus roundly insulted the canons and ecclesiastical discipline."}, {"canon": 7, "text": "As for those heretics who proceed to embrace Orthodoxy, and join the portion of the saved, we accept them in accordance with the subjoined sequence and custom; Arians, and Macedoniacs, and Sabbatians, and Novatians, those calling themselves Cathari, and the Aristeri and Apollinarians we accept when they offer Orthodox documents and anathematize every heresy that does not hold the same beliefs as the catholic and apostolic Church of God, and are sealed first with holy myron (chrism) on their forehead and their eyes, and the nose and mouth, and ears; and in sealing them we say: \"The seal of a gift of Holy Spirit.\" As for Eunomians, however, who are baptized with a single immersion, and Montanists, who are here called Phrygians, and the Sabellians, who teach that Father and Son are the same person, and some other errors, and (those belonging to) other heresies (for there are many heretics here, especially such as come from the country of the Galatians): all of them that want to adhere to Orthodoxy we are willing to accept as Greeks. Accordingly, on the first day we treat them as Christians; on the second day, catechumens; then, on the third day, we exorcize them with the act of blowing thrice into their face and into their ears; and thus do we catechize them, and we make them stay a time in the church and listen to the Scriptures; and then we baptize them."}]}, "5": {"name": "ephesus", "history": "", "canons": [{"canon": 1, "text": "Since those who for any reason, whether of an ecclesiastical or of physical nature, are absent from the Holy Synod and have remained in their own town or district, ought not to be left in ignorance of the Synod's regulations regarding them, we make known to your holiness and love, that if any metropolitan of the province has apostatized from the holy and ecumenical Synod and joined the assembly of the apostasy, or has joined it thereafter, or has adopted the sentiments of Celestius or intends to adopt them, he shall have no power whatsoever to perpetrate anything against the bishops of the province, being already expelled and stripped of every function and of all ecclesiastical communion by the present Synod. Moreover, he shall be liable in any case, to be expelled from the rank of the episcopate by those very bishops of the province and by surrounding metropolitans who adhere to the beliefs of Orthodoxy."}, {"canon": 2, "text": "If, on the other hand, any provincial bishops have failed to attend the Holy Synod and have joined the apostasy, or should attempt to do so, or even after subscribing to the deposition of Nestorius have again gone to the synods of apostasy, all such persons, in the judgment that has seemed best to the Holy Synod, have alienated themselves from Holy Orders and have forfeited their rank."}, {"canon": 3, "text": "If some of the clergymen in any city or district have been shorn of Holy Orders by Nestorius and his party on account of their believing rightly, we have adjudged it right and just that they be restored to their own rank. We collectively bid the clergymen who agree in their beliefs with the Orthodox and the Ecumenical Synod not to submit in any way whatever to the bishops who have apostatized or have deserted us."}, {"canon": 4, "text": "If any of the clergymen should apostatize and dare, either publicly or privately, to hold the beliefs of Nestorius or of Celestius, the Holy Synod has deemed it just and right that these men too should be deposed."}, {"canon": 5, "text": "As for all those who have been condemned by the Holy Synod, or by their own bishops for improper acts, and to whom Nestorius and those sharing his views and beliefs have sought, or should seek, to give back communion or rank, uncanonically and in accordance with the indifference shown by Nestorius in all matters, we have deemed it right and just that they too remain without benefit and that they be left nevertheless deposed."}, {"canon": 6, "text": "Likewise in regard to any persons who should wish to alter in any way whatsoever anything that has been enacted by the Holy Synod in Ephesus, concerning anyone, the holy Synod has prescribed that if they be bishops or clergymen, they are to lose their own rank entirely, while if they be laymen, they are to be excluded from communion."}, {"canon": 7, "text": "These things having been read aloud, the Holy Synod then decreed that no one should be permitted to offer any different belief or faith, or in any case to write or formulate any other than the one defined by the Holy Fathers assembled with the Holy Spirit in the city of Nicaea. As for those who dare either to formulate a different belief or faith, or to present one, or to offer one to those who wish to turn to acknowledgment of the truth, whether they are Greeks or Jews, or they are members of any heresy whatever; if bishops or clergymen, they shall be deposed as bishops of their episcopate, and as clergymen of their clericate; but if they are laymen, they shall be anathematized. In the same manner, if any persons be discovered or discovered, whether bishops, clergymen or laymen, in the act of believing or teaching the things embodied in the exposition presented by Charisius the Priest concerning the incarnation of the Only-begotten Son of God, or by any chance, the unholy and perverse dogmas of Nestorius which have even been subjoined, let them stand liable to the judgment of this holy and Ecumenical Synod. As a consequence, that is to say, the bishop shall be deprived of his episcopate, and be left deposed, while the clergyman shall likewise forfeit his clericate. If on the other hand any such person is a layman, let him also be anathematized, as aforesaid."}, {"canon": 8, "text": "Our fellow Bishop Reginus, most beloved by God, and with him the most God-beloved bishops of the province of the Cypriotes Zeno and Evagrios, have announced an innovation, a thing whichis contrary to the ecclesiastical laws and the Canons of the Holy Apostles, and one which affects the freedom of all. Hence, since common ailments require more drastic treatment, on the ground that they do greater damage, and especially in view of the fact that the Bishop of Antioch, far from following the ancient custom, has been performing the ordinations in Cyprus, according to information given in the Book of Orthodox Documents and by oral statements made by most pious gentlemen who have approached the Holy Synod. Therefore those who preside over the churches in Cyprus shall retain their privilege unaffected and inviolate, according to the Canons of the Holy Fathers and ancient custom, whereby they shall themselves perform the ordinations of the most reverent bishops. The same rule shall hold good also with regard to the other dioceses and churches everywhere, so that none of the bishops most beloved by God shall take hold of any other province that was not formerly and from the beginning in his jurisdiction or was not held by his predecessors. But if anyone has taken possession of any, and has forcibly subjected it to his authority, he shall return it to its rightful possessor, in order that the Canons of the Fathers not be transgressed, nor the secular be introduced, under the pretext of divine services; lest imperceptibly and little by little we lose the freedom which our Lord Jesus Christ, the Liberator of all men, has given us as a free gift by His own Blood. For this reason, it seemed best to the holy and Ecumenical Synod that the rights of every province, formerly and from the beginning belonging to it, be preserved clear and inviolable, in accordance with the custom which prevailed of old, each metropolitan having permission to take copies of the proceedings for his own security. If, on the other hand, anyone introduce any form conflicting with the decrees that have now been sanctioned, it has seemed best to the entire holy and Ecumenical Synod that it shall be of no effect."}]}, "6": {"name": "2const", "history": "", "no_canons": true}, "7": {"name": "3const", "history": "", "no_canons": true}, "9": {"name": "chalcedon", "history": "", "canons": [{"canon": 1, "text": "We pronounce it just and right that the canons promulgated by the Holy Fathers, in each and every Synod down to the present time, continue in full force and effect."}, {"canon": 2, "text": "If any bishop ordain anyone for money, and make merchandise of the unsellable grace, and perform the ordination of a bishop, chorepiscopus, priest, deacon, or any one on the roll of the clergy, with a view to gain; or nominate any steward, ecdicus, or paramonarius, or anyone else that belongs to the canon, for money, with the object of making a shameful profit for himself: let him who is found guilty of having undertaken this stand in peril of his office; and let him who has been thus ordained have no benefit from such traffic in ordinations or nominations, but, on the contrary, let him be without any claim upon the dignity or job which he has thus obtained by means of money. If, in fact, anyone even appear as a middleman or factor or intermediary for such shameful and illicit deals, let him too, if he be a clergyman, forfeit his office; but if he be a layman or a monk, let him be anathematized."}, {"canon": 3, "text": "It is come to the (knowledge of the) Synod that some of those who had been listed in the roll of the clergy hire other men's estates for the sake of filthy lucre, and undertake to negotiate secular affairs, to the neglect of the Divine Liturgy, and betake themselves to the families of secular men, whose estates they undertake to manage out of love of money. Therefore the holy and great Synod decrees that no bishop, clergyman, or shall henceforth be allowed to farm any estate or office, or to involve himself in secular cares, unless he be unavoidably called by laws to the guardianship of minors, or the bishop permit him to take care of the affairs of the church, or of those of orphans or widows unprovided for, and of persons in especial need of ecclesiastical assistance, for the fear of God. If anyone presume to transgress hereafter any of the rules herein decreed, that person shall be liable to ecclesiastical penalties."}, {"canon": 4, "text": "Let them who sincerely and truly enter upon monastic life be accorded due honor. But inasmuch as some use the monk's garb to disturb the affairs of the Church and civil government, by going round in the cities negligently disregarding their duties, and even undertaking to build themselves monasteries, it is decreed that no one shall anywhere build or establish any monastery or any oratory (i.e. prayerhouse) without the consent and approval of the bishop of the city; and that monks in every city and country be subject to the bishop, and embrace quietude, and pay heed only to fasting and prayer, while continuing in the places patiently to which they have been assigned, without intruding upon or meddling in ecclesiastical affairs, nor leaving their own monasteries, unless at any time they be permitted to do so by the bishop of the city on account of some exigency; and that no one shall receive a slave into the monasteries to become a monk, without his owner's consent and approval. We have decreed that anyone transgressing this rule of ours shall be excluded from communion, in order that the name of God be not blasphemed. The bishop of the city, however, is required to make proper provision for monasteries."}, {"canon": 5, "text": "As regards bishops or clergymen who go from city to city, it has seemed fitting that the canons laid down by the Holy Fathers should remain in effect and be enforced."}, {"canon": 6, "text": "It is decreed that no one shall be ordained at large either a priest or a deacon, nor anything else at all in the ecclesiastical ranks unless he be particularly assigned to the church of some city, or to a martyry, or to a monastery. As for those ordained at large the Holy Synod has determined that any such chirothesy shall be null and void, and that such ordinees shall not be allowed to officiate anywhere, to the dishonor of the ordainer."}, {"canon": 7, "text": "We have decreed in regard to those who have once been enrolled in the clergy or who have become monks shall not join the army nor obtain any secular position of dignity. Let those be anathematized who dare to do this and fail to repent, so as to return to that which they had previously chosen on God's account."}, {"canon": 8, "text": "As for the clergymen attached to poorhouses or monasteries or martyries, let them remain under the authority of the bishop of the city in question, and not disrespectfully desert their own bishop, in accordance with the teaching imparted by the holy Fathers. As regards those who dare to defy any such formal ruling, in any manner whatever, and who refuse to submit to their own bishop, in case they are clergymen let them be liable to the penalties prescribed by the canons, but if they are monks or laymen, let them be excluded from communion."}, {"canon": 9, "text": "If any clergyman has a dispute with another, let him not leave his own bishop and resort to secular courts, but let him first submit his case to his own bishop, or let it be tried by referees chosen by both parties and approved by the bishop. Let anyone who acts contrary hereto be liable to canonical penalties. If, on the other hand, a clergyman has a dispute with his own bishop, or with some other bishop, let it be tried by the Synod of the province. But if any bishop or clergyman has a dispute with the metropolitan of the same province, let him apply either to the exarch of the diocese or to the throne of the imperial capital Constantinople, and let it be tried before him."}, {"canon": 10, "text": "Let no clergyman be entitled to be on the roll of the churches of two different churches at the same time, i.e., of that in which he was originally ordained, and of that to which he has resorted on the plea that it appeals to him more than the other because of its being a larger church, when in reality he is actuated by vainglory. As for those who do so, let them be reinstated in their own church, wherein they were originally ordained, and let them officiate there only. If, on the other hand, anyone has been already translated from one church to another, let him have nothing to do with the affairs of the former church, as regards the martyry connected to it, or the poorhouses, or the inns, administered by it. As for those who dare to do anything hereby prohibited, after the definition of this great and ecumenical Synod, this Holy Synod has decided that he shall forfeit his own rank."}, {"canon": 11, "text": "As for all those who are indigent and in need of assistance, upon proof, we have made it a rule that they are to travel only with pacific ecclesiastical letters, and not with recommendatory letters; for recommendatory letters are to be granted only to persons who are under suspicion."}, {"canon": 12, "text": "It has come to our knowledge that some persons, by resorting to the civil authorities, have obtained pragmatics whereby they have contrived to divide one province into two, contrary to the ecclesiastical canons, and as a result there are two metropolitans in one and the same province. The Holy Synod has therefore made it a rule that no bishop shall hereafter be allowed to do such a thing. For, if anyone shall attempt to do so, he shall forfeit his own rank. As for all those cities which have already been honored with the name of metropolis by letters of the emperor, let them enjoy only the honor, and likewise the bishop who is administering its church; it being left plain that the rights properly belonging to the real metropolis are to be preserved to this metropolis (alone)."}, {"canon": 13, "text": "Strange clergymen and anagnosts are not to be allowed to conduct services anywhere in a different city without having letters recommendatory from their own bishop."}, {"canon": 14, "text": "Inasmuch as anagnosts and chanters in some provinces have been permitted to marry, the Holy Synod has made it a rule that none of them shall be allowed to take a wife that is of a different faith. As for those who have already had children as a result of such a marriage, if they have already had their offspring baptized by heretics, let them bring them into the communion of the Orthodox Catholic Church. But if they have not baptized them, let them no longer have any right to baptize them with heretics, nor, indeed, even to contract a marriage with a heretic, or a Jew, or a Greek, unless they first promise and undertake to convert the person joined to the Orthodox Christian to the Orthodox faith. If, on the other hand, anyone transgresses this rule of the Holy Synod, let him be liable to a canonical penalty."}, {"canon": 15, "text": "Let no woman be ordained a deaconess before the age of forty, and even then after a strict test. But if she, after receiving the gift of chirothesy and remaining for some time in the ministry, proceeds to give herself in marriage, thus insulting the grace of God, let any such actress be anathematized together with the man who has joined himself with her in marriage."}, {"canon": 16, "text": "If any virgin has dedicated herself to the Lord God, or any men likewise have become monks, let them not be permitted to engage in marriage. If, however, they be found to be doing this, let them be denied communion, and be excluded from there. But we have made it a rule that the local bishop is to have control of kindliness in regard to the treatment of them."}, {"canon": 17, "text": "Concerning rural parishes, or country parishes, in any province, they shall remain in the undisputed possession of the bishops now holding them, and especially if they have held them in their possession and have managed them without coercion for thirty years or more. But if during a period of thirty years there has arisen or should arise some dispute concerning them, those claiming to have been unjustly treated shall be permitted to complain to the Synod of the province. But if anyone has been unjustly treated by his own metropolitan, let him complain to the Exarch of the diocese, or let him have his case tried before the throne of Constantinople, according as he may choose. If, on the other hand, any city has, been rebuilt by imperial authority, or has been built anew again, pursuant to civil and public formalities, let the order of the ecclesiastical parishes be followed."}, {"canon": 18, "text": "The crime of conspiracy, or of faction (by a group) already prohibited by secular laws, ought still more to be forbidden to appear in the Church of God. If, therefore, there be found any clergymen, or monastics, to be conspiring or to be engaged in factiousness of any kind, or hatching plots against bishops or fellow clergymen, they shall forfeit their own rank altogether."}, {"canon": 19, "text": "It has come to our ears that the canonically prescribed synods of bishops are not held in the provinces, and as a result of this fact many ecclesiastical matters in need of correction are neglected. The holy Synod, therefore, has made it a rule, in accordance with the canons of the Holy Fathers, for the bishops to meet twice a year in convention somewhere in each province, wherever the bishop of the metropolis designates, and for all matters to be corrected that may come up. As for those bishops, on the other hand, who fail to attend the meeting, but who, instead of doing so, remain at home in their respective cities, and lead their lives therein in good health and free from every indispensable and necessary occupation, they are to be reprimanded in a brotherly way."}, {"canon": 20, "text": "As we have already decreed, it is not permissible for clergymen officiating in a church to be given a church in another city; but, on the contrary, they must rest content with the one in which they were originally deemed worthy to conduct divine services: except those who have gone over to another church as a result of their having been forced to flee from their own country. If any bishop nevertheless admits a clergyman belonging to another bishop, after promulgation of this rule, it has been decided that both of them, i.e., the clergyman so admitted and the bishop admitting him, are to be excluded from communion until such time as the clergyman who has left his own city see fit to return to his own church."}, {"canon": 21, "text": "Clergymen or laymen accusing bishops or clergymen are not to be allowed to file charges against them promiscuously and without investigation until their own reputation has been examined into."}, {"canon": 22, "text": "Clergymen, after the death of their own bishop, shall not be allowed to seize his effects, as is prohibited even by the canons of old, on pain of being stripped of their own offices."}, {"canon": 23, "text": "It has come to the ears of the holy Synod that certain clergymen and monastics, without being handed any permission by their own bishop, and in fact, sometimes even after he has excluded them from communion, have resorted to the imperial city of Constantinople, and stay there a long time, causing disturbances and meddling the ecclesiastical situation, and engender upheavals in the households of some persons. Hence the holy Synod has decreed that they first be reminded, through the Defensor of the most holy Church of Constantinople, to take their departure from the imperial city. But if they impudently persist in doing the same things, they are to be expelled from the city even against their will through the same defensor, and are to betake themselves to their own regions."}, {"canon": 24, "text": "As for monasteries which have once been consecrated with the consent of the bishop, they are to remain monasteries perpetually, and the property owned by them is to be kept safe, and no more be permitted to serve as mundane haunts of vice. Those who permit this to occur are liable to the penalties provided by the canons."}, {"canon": 25, "text": "Whereas some metropolitans, as we have been informed, neglect the flocks committed to their care, and postpone the ordinations of bishops, the Holy Synod has decreed that they must perform ordinations within three months unless some unavoidable necessity require the time to be lengthened. If they fail to carry out this rule, they shall be liable to ecclesiastical penalties; and the means profits of the widow church shall be preserved to be retained by the steward (or oeconomus) of the same church."}, {"canon": 26, "text": "Since in some churches, as we have been informed, the bishops are administering the ecclesiastical affairs with the services of a steward, it has seemed most reasonable and right that each and every church that has a bishop should also have a steward selected from its own clergy to manage the ecclesiastical affairs of that particular church in accordance with the views and ideas of its own bishop, so as to provide against the administration of the church being unwitnessed, so as to prevent the property of the same church from being wasted as a result of such stewardless administration and to prevent any obloquy from attaching itself to Holy Orders."}, {"canon": 27, "text": "The Holy Synod has made it a rule regarding those who take women by force under pretense of marriage, and their accomplices and abettors, that if they should be clergymen, they shall forfeit their own rank, but if they are laymen, they shall be anathematized."}, {"canon": 28, "text": "Everywhere following the decrees of the Holy Fathers, and aware of the recently recognized canon of the one hundred and fifty most God-beloved bishops who convened during the reign of Theodosius the Great of pious memory, who became emperor in the imperial city of Constantinople otherwise known as New Rome; we too decree and vote the same things in regard to the privileges and priorities of the most holy Church of that same Constantinople and New Rome. And this is in keeping with the fact that the Fathers naturally enough granted the priorities to the throne of Old Rome on account of her being the imperial capital. And motivated by the same object and aim the one hundred and fifty most God-beloved bishops have accorded the like priorities to the most holy throne of New Rome, with good reason deeming that the city which is the seat of an empire, and of a senate, and is equal to old imperial Rome in respect of other privileges and priorities, should be magnified also as she is in respect of ecclesiastical affairs, as coming next after her, or as being second to her. And it is arranged so that only the metropolitans of the Pontic, Asian, and Thracian dioceses shall be ordained by the most holy throne of the most holy Church of Constantinople, aforesaid, and likewise the bishops of the aforesaid dioceses which are situated in barbarian lands; that is to say, that each metropolitan of the aforesaid dioceses, together with the bishops of the province, shall ordain the bishops of the province, just as is prescribed by the divine canons. But the metropolitans of the aforesaid dioceses, as has been said, are to be ordained by the Archbishop of Constantinople, after the elections have first been conducted in accordance with custom, and have been reported to him."}, {"canon": 29, "text": "For a bishop to bear the rank of priest is sacrilege. However, if any just reason determines their removal from practice as bishops, then neither ought they to occupy the position of priest. But if for any cause than some crime they have been deprived of the dignity and office, they shall be restored to the dignity and office of the episcopate."}, {"canon": 30, "text": "Whereas the most reverent bishops of Egypt postponed subscribing to the epistle of the most holy Archbishop Leo for the present, not because they opposed the catholic faith, but on the allegation that it is a custom in the diocese of Egypt to do nothing of this sort without the consent and formal approval of their archbishop, and therefore request to be excused until the one who is to be the bishop for the great city of the Alexandrians has been ordained: it has appeared to us reasonable and consonant with the spirit of philanthropy that they be excused and allowed to remain upon the like habit in the Imperial City till an archbishop has been ordained for the great city of the Alexandrians. Let them therefore give security that they will not leave this city till the city of the Alexandrians has been accommodated with a bishop."}]}}}
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+1 - In beginning either a discourse or an action of any kind the thoughtful find it best to begin with God, and to rely upon God, in accordance with the utterance of the Theologian. Hence, inasmuch as we have already preached piety in a clarion voice, and the Church in which Christ has been laid as the foundation is continually growing apace and waxing more and more capable, insomuch that it may be said to have outgrown the cedars of Lebanon, and now in commencing a recital of holy words, by divine grace we decree that the faith which has been handed down to us shall be and remain exempt, from any and every innovation and mutilation just as it has been delivered to us by those who have been both eye-witness and servants of the word of the God approved Apostles, and further by the three hundred and eighteen holy and blissful Fathers who convened in Nicaea in the reign of Constantine, who became our Emperor, against impious Arius and the heathenish deity of a diverse god, or one might more aptly say of a multitude of diverse gods, which was dogmatized by him; and who in their unanimous consensus of opinion regarding the faith revealed and stated to us with, convincing clearness the fact that the three hypostasis of the thearchic nature are of the same essence, without allowing this important point to remain hidden under a bushel of ignorance, but, on the contrary, openly taught the faithful outright to adore the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit with one adoration, and deposed and denounced the opinion that divinity if of unequal grades (or ranks), and efficiently overthrew and demolished the puerile toys which the heretics had built up and erected upon sand in opposition to Orthodoxy. Likewise it is to be noted that we are determined to strengthen as much as we can the faith which was proclaimed by the one hundred and fifty Holy Fathers who convened in. the Imperial City itself in the reign of Theodosios the Great, who also became our Emperor, embracing the utterance of the Theologian and driving out profane Macedonius along with previous enemies of the truth, on the ground that he impudently and arrogantly opined the head of lordship to be a servant and slave, and as having preferred as a matter of choice to split the indivisible unit in robber fashion, as though the mystery of the hope were not sufficient, to sustain us. Along with this abominable fellow who waxed rabid against the truth they courageously condemned also Apollinaris the monstrous initiate of wickedness and, vice, who vomited forth an impious view proclaiming the Lord to have been taken up in, body without a mind and without a soul, so that it is hence evident that he too was addicted to the unwelcome conclusion that we have been left with an imperfect hope of salvation. But as a matter of fact we also gladly ratify the teachings set forth by the God-bearing Fathers who earlier assembled themselves in the city of Ephesus in the reign of Theodosius, who was the son of Arcadius and who also became our Emperor, and we hold them to be an unbreakable and mighty power of piety, preaching one Christ the Son of God who became incarnate, and the undefiled Ever-Virgin who without seed gave birth to Him, holding her to have been properly speaking and truly Theotokos (Birth-giver of God), and driving away into banishment the driveling dissension of Nestorius on the ground that it has lost all contact with the Divine Oracle, while at the same time it seeks to renew the prevalence of Jewish ungodliness and aversion to piety, and we dogmatize the one Christ to be human being in due form and a God in due form. But we do not stop here. In an Orthodox manner we confirm the faith which was engrossed upon a pillar in the Metropolis of the Chalcedonians in the reign of Marcianus, who also became our Emperor, by the six hundred and thirty God- approved Fathers, which conveyed to the ends of the earth in a loud voice, the one Christ the Son of God composed of two natures and in these two same natures glorified; and we have driven out of the holy precincts of the Church Eutyches the vain-minded, who declared it to be his opinion that great mystery of the Economy was only seemingly consummated, as something sinister and miasmatic, and along with him also Dioscoros and Nestorius, the former being a defender and champion of dissension, the latter of confusion, and both of them being diametrically opposite outlets of impiety, fallen out in the same direction towards one and the same yawning chasm of perdition and godlessness. But neither do we stop here. We take the pious utterances of the one hundred and sixty-five God-bearing Fathers who assembled apart the ground of this Imperial City in the reign of Justinian, who became our Emperor and who passed away at the termination of his pious career, and, recognizing them to have been inspired and uttered by the (Holy) Spirit, we teach then outright to our posterity; which Fathers indeed as a Synod anathematized and consigned to abomination Theodore of Mopsuestia, the teacher of Nestorius, and in addition Origen and Didymus and Evagrius, who joined hands in refashioning the Greek myths and recounting to us periods and mutations of certain bodies and souls, prompted by raptures and hallucinations of the mind, and in drunken revelry impiously exulting over the resurrection of the dead; as well as what had been written by Theodoret against the right faith and correct belief and against the twelves heads (or chapters) of blissful Cyril; and also the so-called letter of Ibas. And again, we faithfully join together in the promise and vow to preserve and safeguard and keep inviolable the faith declared by the Sixth Holy Synod recently assembled on. the grounds of this Imperial City in the reign of Constantine, who became our Emperor and passed away at the termination of his divine career, and which received still greater validity by virtue of the fact that the pious Emperor himself sealed up the volumes containing it by impressing them with his own seals with a view to ensuring their safety in every succeeding age; and which has with the love of God clearly enabled us to entertain an Orthodox conception of the straightforward dogma which they outlined of the truth that there were and are two natural wills, or that is to say, wishes, and two natural energies inherent in the incarnate economy of our one Lord Jesus, the true God; and which Synod by a vote of piety condemned those who teach their laities outright the doctrine of a single will and of a single energy inherent in our one Lord and God Jesus Christ, among whom of cite by name Theodore the Bishop of Faran, Cyrus (the Patriarch) of Alexandria, Honorius (the Pope) of Rome, Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul, Peter, all four of whom have acted as presiding chairmen in this God-guarded city, Macarius who became the Bishop of the Antiochians, Stephanos his disciple, and foolish (or witless) Polychronios. Hence we solemnly decree that this Synod, while preserving intact the common body of Christ our God, and, succinctly speaking, of all the men who have distinguished themselves in the Church of God and have become luminaries in the world, "holding forth the word of life" (Philippians 2:16), is committed to holding the faith firmly and sure, even, till the consummation of the age, and that it shall remain immutable and unaltered, as well as their God- imparted writings and dogmas; and rejecting and anathematized, on the ground that its authors were enemies of the truth, and snortingly and ravingly uttered vain things against God and made injustice the highest object of their study and meditation. If, however, there be anyone in the world who does not care to hold and embrace the aforesaid dogmas of piety, and believe and preach thus, but, on the contrary, attempts to by-pass them, let hint be anathema, in accordance with the definition (or rule) already previously promulgated by the aforesaid holy and blissful Fathers, and let him be erased and expunged from the Christian Roll like an alien, and as one not belonging to our faith. For we are fully resolved and have been determined not to add anything to or to remove anything from what has previously been decreed, or any words whatsoever that we have been able to understand.
+2 - This too has appeared best to the this holy Synod, as well as most important, that the 85 Canons handed down to us in the name of the holy and glorious Apostles, and as matter of fact accepted and validated by the holy and blissful Fathers preceding us, be henceforth retained and left firm and secure for the care of souls and the cure of diseases. However, inasmuch as we are ordered in these Canons to accept the Injunctions of the same Holy Apostles (as transmitted) through Clemens, into some of which certain spurious passages destitute of piety have been interpolated long ago by the heterodox to the detriment of the Church, and have tarnished the becoming and natural beauty of the divine dogmas for us, we have suitably weeded out such ordinances in furtherance of the edification and security of the most Christian flock, not in the least way being minded to approve the fantastic inventions of heretical mendacity that have been inserted in the genuine and uncorrupted Didache (or teaching) of the Apostles. On the other hand, we ratify all the rest of the holy Canons promulgated by our holy and blissful Fahers, to wit: the three hundred and eighteen foregathered in Nicaea, those convened in Ancyra, and furthermore also those who met in Neocaesarea, likewise those who attended the meeting in Gangra, but in addition to these also those who convened in Antioch, Syria, and furthermore also those who held a Synod in Laodicea; further, again, the one hundred and fifty who convened in this God-guarded and imperial capital city, and the two hundred who assembled at are earlier time in the metropolis of Ephesus, and the six hundred and thirty holy and blissful Fathers who met in Chalcedon. Likewise those who convened in Sardica and also those in Carthage. Further and in addition, to all these those now again convened in this God-guarded and imperial capital city in the time of Nectarios the president of this imperial capital city, arid of Theophilos who became Archbishop of Alexandria. Furthermore also of Dionysius who became Archbishop of the great city of Alexandria, and of Peter who became Archbishop of Alexandria and a Martyr withal, and of Gregory the Thaumaturgus (Miracle-worker) who became Bishop of Neocaesarea, of Athanasios the Archbishop of Alexandria, of Basil the Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, of Gregory of Nyssa, of Gregory the Theologian, of Amphilochios the Archbishop of Iconium, Timothy a former Archbishop of the great city of Alexandria, of Theophilos an Archbishop of the great city of the Alexandrians, of Cyril an Archbishop of Alexandria, and of Gennadius who became a Patriarch of this God-guarded imperial capital city. Furthermore, the Canon promulgated by Cyprian who became an Archbishop of the country of Africa and a martyr, and by the Synod supporting him, who alone held sway in the places of the aforesaid presidents, in accordance with the custom handed down to them; and no one shall be permitted to countermand or set aside the Canons previously laid down, or to recognize and accept any Canons, other than the ones herein specified, that have been composed under a false inscription by certain persons who have taken in hand to barter the truth. Nevertheless, if anyone be caught innovating with regard to any of the said Canons, or attempting to subvert it, he shall be responsible in respect of that Canon and shall receive the penalty that it prescribes and be chastised by that Canon which he has offended.
diff --git a/canon_law/frontend.py b/canon_law/frontend.py
index d49ae7d..79f9449 100644
--- a/canon_law/frontend.py
+++ b/canon_law/frontend.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ bp = flask.Blueprint("frontend", __name__)
page_titles = {
"apostles": "canons of the apostles",
- "1nicea": "first council of nicea (325)",
+ "1nicaea": "first council of nicaea (325)",
"1const": "first council of constantinople (381)",
"ephesus": "council of ephesus (431)",
"chalcedon": "council of chalcedon (451)",
diff --git a/canon_law/static/logo.png b/canon_law/static/logo.png
index 9d497f2..2d82a15 100644
Binary files a/canon_law/static/logo.png and b/canon_law/static/logo.png differ
diff --git a/canon_law/static/style.css b/canon_law/static/style.css
index 6679f52..ace3b9f 100644
--- a/canon_law/static/style.css
+++ b/canon_law/static/style.css
@@ -141,13 +141,13 @@ tr:nth-child(even) { background-color: #e0e0e0; }
small { font-size: 11px; }
-a { color: #009400; text-decoration: none; }
-a:hover { color: #006400 !important; }
-a:focus { color: #006400 !important; }
-a:visited { color: #009400; }
+a { color: #b5941a; text-decoration: none; }
+a:hover { color: #a48317 !important; }
+a:focus { color: #a48317 !important; }
+a:visited { color: #b5941a; }
-::selection { background: #111; color: #009400; text-decoration: none; }
-::-moz-selection { background: #111; color: #009400; text-decoration: none; }
+::selection { background: #111; color: #b5941a; text-decoration: none; }
+::-moz-selection { background: #111; color: #b5941a; text-decoration: none; }
.clicktoreveal {
text-align:center;
diff --git a/canon_law/templates/about.html b/canon_law/templates/about.html
index 822c442..554f7d8 100644
--- a/canon_law/templates/about.html
+++ b/canon_law/templates/about.html
@@ -6,8 +6,7 @@
about
- canonlaw@oikonomia is a open-source endeavor by Oikonomia, an Orthodox Christian
- community to provide a way to reference canon law quickly.
+ canonlaw@hesychia is a open-source endeavor by Hesychia to provide a way to reference canon law quickly.
- canonlaw@oikonomia is developed and ran on Python 3.7.0 using the Flask web framework. It utilizes TinyDB as a
- database library and a few custom extensions for things like logging. The source code for canonlaw@oikonomia can be
- found here. The source code, like most of Oikonomia's
+ canonlaw@hesychia is developed and ran on Python 3.7.0 using the Flask web framework. It utilizes TinyDB as a
+ database library and a few custom extensions for things like logging. The source code for canonlaw@hesychia can be
+ found here. The source code, like most of Hesychia's
open-source projects, is freely available under the GPLv3.
- canonlaw@oikonomia is not officially endorsed by any canonical Orthodox body or member of clergy and is not meant
- to be a substitute for official canon law sources.
+ canonlaw@hesychia is not officially endorsed by any canonical Orthodox body or member of clergy and is not meant
+ to be a perfect substitute for official canon law sources.
- Oikonomia does not endorse using this website or the API to criticize others, and Oikonomia especially does not
+ Hesychia does not endorse using this website or the API to criticize others, and Hesychia especially does not
endorse using this website to criticize clergy. If you have a concern with your priest or bishop or any other
member of clergy, contact the appropriate parties (such as your bishop or other bishops).
- If you have questions, concerns, or feedback about this website or would simply like to contact us, email me@srp.life
- with the subject "canonlaw@oikonomia." Your email will be answered promptly.
+ If you have questions, concerns, or feedback about this website or would simply like to contact us, email me@srp.life
+ with the subject "canonlaw@hesychia." Your email will be answered promptly.
{% endblock %}
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diff --git a/canon_law/templates/index.html b/canon_law/templates/index.html
index 79d18b7..606c986 100644
--- a/canon_law/templates/index.html
+++ b/canon_law/templates/index.html
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
Encouraging Orthodox Christians to create more open-source and developer-friendly resources.
-
At the moment, canonlaw.oikonomia.xyz is a simple canon law browser with an API. In the future, We have plans to add:
+
At the moment, canonlaw@hesychia is a simple canon law browser with an API. In the future, We have plans to add:
Cross-references with Scripture and other canons.
History about the councils and the development of canons.
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
Modern-day applications of these canons.
-
canonlaw.oikonomia.xyz only has the canons of the Holy Apostles and the ecumenical councils. Local councils will be added
+
canonlaw@hesychia only has the canons of the Holy Apostles and the ecumenical councils. Local councils will be added
over time. We apologize for any inconvenience.
 }})