Gangra, Canons 1–20

Canon 1. If anyone condemns marriage, or loathes and condemns a woman who is a believer and devout and sleeps with her own husband, as though she could not enter the kingdom of heaven, let him be anathema. [a]

Canon 2. If anyone condemns a man who eats meat that is without blood and has not been offered to idols or strangled, and who is faithful and devout, as though the man had no hope of salvation because of his eating, let him be anathema. [c]

Canon 3. If anyone, under a pretext of piety, teaches a slave to despise his master and to run away from his service, and not to serve his own master with good will and all honor, let him be anathema.

Canon 4. If anyone maintains, concerning a married presbyter, that it is not lawful to share in the offering when he offers it, let him be anathema. [d]

Canon 5. If anyone teaches that the house of God and the assemblies held in it are to be despised, let him be anathema.

Canon 6. If anyone holds private assemblies outside the church and, despising the canons, dares to perform the acts of the church when the presbyter, with the bishop’s agreement, refuses his permission, let him be anathema.

Canon 7. If anyone dares to take the fruits offered to the church, or to give them out outside the church, without the consent of the bishop or of the person in charge of such things, and refuses to act according to his judgment, let him be anathema. [e]

Canon 8. If anyone other than the bishop, or the person appointed to manage the charitable gifts, either gives or receives the revenue, let both the giver and the receiver be anathema.

Canon 9. If anyone remains a virgin, or lives in continence, abstaining from marriage because he loathes it, and not because of the beauty and holiness of virginity itself, let him be anathema. [f]

Canon 10. If any of those who live a virgin life for the Lord’s sake treats the married arrogantly, let him be anathema.

Canon 11. If anyone despises those who, out of faith, hold love feasts and invite the brothers in honor of the Lord, and is not willing to accept these invitations because he despises what is done, let him be anathema. [g]

Canon 12. If anyone, under a pretext of asceticism, wears a peribolaeum and, as though this gave him righteousness, despises those who with piety wear the berus and other common and customary dress, let him be anathema. [h]

Canon 13. If any woman, under a pretext of asceticism, changes her clothing and puts on a man’s instead of a woman’s usual clothing, let her be anathema.

Canon 14. If any woman forsakes her husband and decides to leave him because she loathes marriage, let her be anathema.

Canon 15. If anyone forsakes his own children and does not provide for them, nor, as far as lies in him, bring them up in fitting piety, but neglects them under a pretext of asceticism, let him be anathema.

Canon 16. If any children, under any pretext of piety, forsake their parents, especially if the parents are believers, and withhold fitting reverence from them on the plea that they honor piety more than their parents, let them be anathema.

Canon 17. If any woman, out of pretended asceticism, cuts off her hair, which God gave her as a reminder of her subjection, and so, as it were, annuls the ordinance of subjection, let her be anathema. [i]

Canon 18. If anyone, under a pretext of asceticism, fasts on Sunday, let him be anathema.

Canon 19. If any of the ascetics, without bodily necessity, behaves insolently and disregards the fasts commonly prescribed and kept by the church, on the grounds of his own perfect understanding of the matter, let him be anathema.

Canon 20. If anyone, from a presumptuous disposition, condemns and loathes the assemblies held in honor of the martyrs, or the services performed there, and the commemoration of the martyrs, let him be anathema. [j]