Canons 1–8

Canon 1. Since those who were kept away from the holy synod and stayed in their own district or city, for any reason, whether of the church or personal, ought not to be ignorant of what the synod decreed, we therefore inform your holiness and your love that if any metropolitan of a province, deserting the holy and ecumenical synod, has joined the assembly of the apostates, or joins it hereafter; or if he has adopted, or adopts hereafter, the teachings of Celestius: he has no power in any way to do anything against the bishops of the province, since he is already cast out from all church communion and made unable to exercise his ministry. Instead, he will himself be subject in all things to those very bishops of the province and to the neighboring orthodox metropolitans, and he will be removed from his rank as bishop. [a]

Canon 2. If any bishops of the provinces were not present at the holy synod and have joined, or tried to join, the apostasy; or if, after signing the deposition of Nestorius, they went back to the assembly of the apostates: these men, according to the decree of the holy synod, are to be deposed from the priesthood and removed from their rank. [c]

Canon 3. If any of the clergy of the cities or the countryside have been barred by Nestorius or his followers from exercising the priesthood because of their orthodoxy, we have declared it just that they be restored to their proper rank. And in general we forbid all the clergy who hold to the orthodox and ecumenical synod to submit in any way to the bishops who have already become apostates or who become apostates hereafter. [d]

Canon 4. If any of the clergy fall away, and publicly or privately dare to maintain the teachings of Nestorius or Celestius, the holy synod has declared it just that they too be deposed. [e]

Canon 5. If any have been condemned for wicked conduct by the holy synod or by their own bishops, and if Nestorius, with his usual lack of discernment, or his followers have tried, or try hereafter, to restore such persons against the canons to communion and to their former rank, we have declared that they will gain nothing by it, but will remain deposed all the same. [f]

Canon 6. Likewise, if any should try in any way to set aside what the holy synod at Ephesus has ordered in each case, the holy synod decrees that, if they are bishops or clergy, they will lose their office altogether; and if they are laymen, they will be excommunicated. [g]

Canon 7. When these things had been read, the holy synod decreed that no one may bring forward, or write, or compose a different faith as a rival to the one established by the holy fathers who were assembled with the Holy Spirit in Nicaea. [h]

Those who dare to compose a different faith, or to introduce it or offer it to people who wish to turn to the knowledge of the truth, whether from paganism, from Judaism, or from any heresy whatever, will be deposed if they are bishops or clergy, bishops from the office of bishop and clergy from the clergy; and if they are lay people, they will be anathematized. [i]

In the same way, if any, whether bishops, clergy, or lay people, are found to hold or teach the doctrines contained in the statement of faith brought forward by the presbyter Charisius concerning the incarnation of the only Son of God, or the abominable and profane doctrines of Nestorius which are appended here, they will be subject to the sentence of this holy and ecumenical synod. That is, if it is a bishop, he will be removed from his bishopric and stripped of his rank; if it is a member of the clergy, he will likewise be struck from the clergy; and if it is a lay person, he will be anathematized, as has already been said. [j]

Canon 8. Our brother bishop Rheginus, beloved of God, and his fellow bishops of the province of Cyprus, Zeno and Evagrius, also beloved of God, have reported to us an innovation which has been brought in against the laws of the church and the canons of the holy apostles, and which touches the freedom of all. Injuries that affect everyone call for the greater attention, since they do the greater damage, and all the more when they break an ancient custom. Those excellent men who have petitioned the synod have told us, in writing and by word of mouth, that the bishop of Antioch has been holding ordinations in Cyprus in this way. Therefore the heads of the holy churches in Cyprus will keep, without dispute or interference, according to the canons of the blessed fathers and ancient custom, the right to ordain their own excellent bishops for themselves. The same rule will be observed in the other dioceses and provinces everywhere, so that none of the bishops beloved of God will take control of any province that has not been, from the very beginning, under his own hand or that of his predecessors. If anyone has taken a province by force and brought it under himself, he must give it up, so that the canons of the fathers are not broken, the vanities of worldly honor are not brought in under the cover of sacred office, and we do not lose little by little, without knowing it, the freedom which our Lord Jesus Christ, the Deliverer of all people, has given us by his own blood. [k]

So this holy and ecumenical synod has decreed that every province will keep, unchanged and unharmed, the rights that have belonged to it from the beginning, according to the old prevailing custom. Every metropolitan may take a copy of these acts for his own security. And if anyone brings forward a rule contrary to what is decided here, this holy and ecumenical synod unanimously decrees that it will have no force. [m]