Canon 7 No military or worldly office for clergy and monks

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

We have decreed that those once placed in the clergy, or who have become monks, are to go neither into military service nor into worldly dignity; or else, those who dare this and do not repent so as to return to that which they first chose for God's sake are to be anathematised.

Τοὺς ἅπαξ ἐν κλήρῳ τεταγμένους, ἢ καὶ μοναστάς, ὡρίσαμεν μήτε ἐπὶ στρατείαν, μήτε ἐπὶ ἀξίαν κοσμικὴν ἔρχεσθαι· ἤ, τοῦτο τολμῶντας, καὶ μὴ μεταμελομένους, ὥστε ἐπιστρέψαι ἐπὶ τοῦτο, ὃ διὰ Θεὸν πρότερον εἵλοντο, ἀναθεματίζεσθαι.

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.