Canons 9–21

Canon 9. No cleric is to be allowed to keep a tavern. For if he is not allowed even to enter a tavern, much more is he forbidden to serve others in one and to carry on a trade unlawful for him. If he does any such thing, let him either stop or be deposed.

Canon 10. A bishop, presbyter or deacon who takes interest, or what is called the hundredth, is to stop or be deposed. [a]

Canon 11. No one in the priestly order, and no layman, is to eat the unleavened bread of the Jews, or have any close dealings with them, or call them in when ill, or take medicines from them, or bathe with them. If anyone takes it on himself to do so, if he is a cleric, let him be deposed; if a layman, let him be cut off.

Canon 12. This too has come to our knowledge: that in Africa and Libya and in other places the most God-beloved bishops there do not refuse to live with their wives even after their consecration, and so give scandal and offense to the people. Since, then, it is our particular care that everything should serve the good of the flock placed in our hands and entrusted to us, it has seemed good that from now on nothing of the kind is to happen in any way. We say this not to abolish and overturn what was established long ago by apostolic authority, but out of care for the health of the people and their progress to better things, and so that the church’s order may not suffer any reproach. For the divine apostle says: “Do all to the glory of God. Give no offense, either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I please everyone in everything, not seeking my own advantage, but the advantage of many, so that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.” But if anyone is seen doing such a thing, let him be deposed. [b]

Canon 13. We know that it has been handed down as a rule of the Roman church that those found worthy to be advanced to the office of deacon or presbyter must promise no longer to live with their wives. We, keeping the ancient rule and the apostolic perfection and order, will that from now on the lawful marriages of men in holy orders are to stand firm. We by no means dissolve their union with their wives, nor deprive them of intercourse with one another at a suitable time. So if anyone has been found worthy to be ordained subdeacon, deacon or presbyter, he is by no means to be barred from that rank because he lives with a lawful wife. Nor is he to be required at the time of his ordination to promise to abstain from lawful intercourse with his wife. Otherwise we would do injury to marriage, which God established and blessed by his presence. As the Gospel says: “What God has joined together, let no one separate.” And the apostle says: “Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled,” and again: “Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released.” [c]

But we know, as those who assembled at Carthage said, out of care for the honest life of the clergy, that subdeacons, who handle the holy mysteries, and deacons and presbyters, should abstain from their wives during their own turns of ministry. So what has been handed down through the apostles and kept by ancient custom we too likewise maintain, knowing that there is a time for everything, and especially for fasting and prayer. For it is right that those who serve at the divine altar should be entirely self-controlled when they are handling holy things, so that they may be able to obtain from God what they ask in sincerity. If, then, anyone dares, contrary to the apostolic canons, to deprive any of those in holy orders, a presbyter, deacon or subdeacon, of living with his lawful wife and of intercourse with her, let him be deposed. In the same way, if any presbyter or deacon sends away his wife on the pretext of piety, let him be shut out from communion; and if he persists in this, let him be deposed. [e]

Canon 14. Let the canon of our holy God-bearing fathers be confirmed in this point also: that a presbyter is not to be ordained before he is thirty years old, even if he is a very worthy man; let him be held back. For our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized and began to teach when he was thirty. In the same way, no deacon is to be ordained before he is twenty-five, nor a deaconess before she is forty. [f]

Canon 15. A subdeacon is not to be ordained under twenty years of age. And if anyone in any grade of the priesthood has been ordained before the prescribed age, let him be deposed.

Canon 16. The book of Acts tells us that seven deacons were appointed by the apostles, and the synod of Neocaesarea, in the canons it issued, determined that by the canons there ought to be only seven deacons, even if the city is very large, in accordance with the book of Acts. But we, having fitted the fathers’ meaning to the apostles’ words, find that they were speaking not of the men who served at the mysteries but of the service that concerns the serving of tables. For the book of Acts reads as follows: “In those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring dispute of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily service. And the Twelve called the multitude of the disciples to them and said, ‘It is not right for us to leave the word of God and serve tables. So look out from among you, brothers, seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’ And the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas, a convert of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles.” [g]

John Chrysostom, a teacher of the church, explaining these words, goes on like this: “It is a remarkable fact that the multitude was not divided in its choice of the men, and that the apostles were not rejected by them. But we must learn what sort of rank these men had, and what ordination they received. Was it that of deacons? But this office did not yet exist in the churches. Was it then the office of a presbyter? But there was not yet any bishop, only apostles. From this I think it is clear and plain that neither the name of deacons nor that of presbyters existed then.” [h] For this reason, then, we also declare that the seven deacons spoken of are not to be understood as deacons who served at the mysteries, according to the teaching set out above. They were men to whom the management of the common good of those gathered together was entrusted, and who in this too were to us a pattern of love for others and of zeal toward those in need. [i]

Canon 17. Clerics of various churches have left the churches in which they were ordained and gone over to other bishops, and without their own bishop’s consent have been settled in other churches, and so have proved themselves insolent and disobedient. We therefore decree that from the month of January of the past fourth indiction, no cleric, of whatever grade he may be, is to have power to be registered on the clergy list of another church without letters of release from his own bishop. Whoever in future does not keep this rule, but brings disgrace on himself and on the bishop who ordained him, let him be deposed, together with the one who received him. [j]

Canon 18. Clerics who have gone abroad because of a barbarian raid, or for any other reason, we order to return to their churches once the cause has passed, or when the raids of the barbarians are over. Nor are they to leave them for long without cause. If anyone has not returned as this present canon directs, let him be cut off until he returns to his own church. And the bishop who received him is to have the same punishment.

Canon 19. Those who preside over the churches ought every day, but especially on the Lord’s days, to teach all the clergy and the people the words of piety and of right religion, gathering from holy Scripture thoughts and judgments of the truth, without going beyond the limits now fixed or departing from the tradition of the God-bearing fathers. And if any dispute about Scripture has been raised, let them not interpret it otherwise than as the lights and teachers of the church have explained it in their writings. Let them take pride in these rather than in composing things out of their own heads, in case through their lack of skill they depart from what is fitting. For through the teaching of these fathers the people come to know what is good and to be chosen, and also what is useless and to be rejected. So they will reshape their lives for the better and not be led by ignorance. Applying their minds to the teaching, they will take care that no evil befalls them, and will work out their salvation in fear of the punishment hanging over them.

Canon 20. A bishop is not to be allowed to teach publicly in any city that does not belong to him. If anyone is seen doing this, let him cease from his office as bishop, but let him carry out the office of a presbyter.

Canon 21. Those who have become guilty of crimes against the canons, and for this reason are subject to complete and permanent deposition, are brought down to the state of laymen. If, however, they keep their conversion continually before their eyes and willingly mourn the sin by which they fell from grace and made themselves strangers to that grace, they may still cut their hair in the manner of clerics. But if they are not willing to submit to this canon, they must wear their hair like laymen, as men who have preferred the fellowship of the world to the heavenly life. [k]