Canon 17 Rural parishes stay with the bishops who hold them

Κανόνες τῆς ἐν Χαλκηδόνι Ἁγίας καὶ Οἰκουμενικῆς Δ´ Συνόδου

The Fourth Ecumenical Council · Chalcedon, 451 · convened by the emperor Marcian · Fourth Ecumenical Council: Chalcedon (451) on the map

The rural or country parishes in each province are to remain undisturbed with the bishops who hold them, and especially if they have held them without force and administered them for a period of thirty years. But if within the thirty years any dispute has arisen, or should arise, concerning them, it is lawful for those who say they are wronged to raise the matter before the synod of the province. And if anyone should be wronged by his own metropolitan, let him be judged before the exarch of the (civil) diocese, or before the throne of Constantinople, as has been said before. And if any city has been newly founded by imperial authority, or should be newly founded hereafter, let the order of the ecclesiastical dioceses also follow the civil and public forms.

Τὰς καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἐπαρχίαν ἀγροικικὰς παροικίας, ἢ ἐγχωρίους, μένειν ἀπαρασαλεύτους παρὰ τοῖς κατέχουσιν αὐτὰς ἐπισκόποις, καὶ μάλιστα εἰ τριακονταετῆ χρόνον ταύτας ἀβιάστως διακατέχοντες ᾠκονόμησαν. Εἰ δὲ ἐντὸς τῶν τριάκοντα ἐτῶν γεγένηταί τις, ἢ γένοιτο περὶ αὐτῶν ἀμφισβήτησις, ἐξεῖναι τοῖς λέγουσιν ἠδικεῖσθαι, περὶ τούτων κινεῖν παρὰ τῇ συνόδῳ τῆς ἐπαρχίας. Εἰ δέ τις ἀδικοῖτο παρὰ τοῦ ἰδίου μητροπολίτου, παρὰ τῷ ἐξάρχῳ τῆς διοικήσεως, ἢ τῷ Κωνσταντινουπόλεως θρόνῳ δικαζέσθω, καθὰ προείρηται. Εἰ δὲ καί τις ἐκ βασιλικῆς ἐξουσίας ἐκαινίσθη πόλις, ἢ αὖθις καινισθείη, τοῖς πολιτικοῖς καὶ δημοσίοις τύποις, καὶ τῶν ἐκκλησιαστικῶν παροικιῶν ἡ τάξις ἀκολουθείτω.

The Fourth Ecumenical Council, the canons

English: this site's translation of the Greek beside it. Greek: the text of the Pedalion, as transcribed at users.uoa.gr/~nektar and corrected here. About these texts.