The Council in Trullo

It is the best order, at the beginning of every word and deed, to begin from God and to come to rest in God, according to the voice of the Theologian. Wherefore, since piety is already being loudly proclaimed by us, and the Church, for which Christ has been laid as the foundation, is continually growing and advancing, so that it reaches out beyond the cedars of Lebanon; now also, making a beginning of the sacred words by divine grace, we decree to keep free of innovation and unwounded the faith handed down to us both by the eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, the God-chosen Apostles, and further also by the three hundred and eighteen holy and blessed Fathers who came together at Nicaea under Constantine, who was our emperor, against the impious Arius and the heathen heterotheism, or, to speak more properly, polytheism, dogmatised by him; who by the unanimity of the faith revealed and made plain to us the homoousion in the three hypostases of the thearchic nature, not permitting this to lie hidden under the bushel of ignorance, but openly teaching the faithful to worship the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit with one worship; and who pulled down and tore apart the opinion of unequal grades of the Godhead, and cast down and overturned the childish playthings built of sand by the heretics against Orthodoxy. Likewise also we strengthen the faith proclaimed under Theodosius the Great, who was our emperor, by the one hundred and fifty holy Fathers gathered in this imperial city, embracing the theological utterances, and driving out, together with the earlier enemies of the truth, the profane Macedonius, who insolently dared to regard as a slave that which is sovereign, and chose like a robber to split the undivided Monad, so that the mystery of hope might not be complete for us; condemning together with this loathsome man, who also raged against the truth, Apollinarius too, the initiate of wickedness, who impiously belched out that the Lord assumed a body without mind and without soul, he too thereby concluding that our salvation was made incomplete. Moreover we also set our seal upon the teachings set forth by the two hundred God-bearing Fathers formerly assembled in the city of the Ephesians under Theodosius, the son of Arcadius, who was our emperor, as an unbreakable strength of piety, proclaiming one Christ, the Son of God, even when made flesh, and glorifying her who bore Him without seed, the immaculate Ever-Virgin, as properly and in truth Theotokos; and driving away, as banished from the divine portion, the foolish division of Nestorius, who taught that the one Christ is man separately and God separately, and renewed the Jewish impiety. Not only so, but we also confirm in an orthodox manner the faith inscribed on a pillar by the six hundred and thirty God-chosen Fathers in the metropolis of the Chalcedonians under Marcian, who also was our emperor; which delivered with a great voice to the ends of the earth that the one Christ, the Son of God, is compounded of two natures and glorified in those same two natures, and drove out from the sacred precincts of the Church, as something abominable and a pollution, Eutyches the vain-minded, who declared that the great mystery of the dispensation was accomplished in appearance; and with him also Nestorius and Dioscorus, the one the defender and champion of division, the other of confusion, who from diametrically opposite sides of impiety fell into one pit of perdition and godlessness. But also the pious utterances of the one hundred and sixty-five God-bearing Fathers assembled in this imperial city under Justinian, our emperor of pious repose, we recognise as uttered by the Spirit, and we teach them to those after us. These synodically anathematised and abhorred Theodore of Mopsuestia, the teacher of Nestorius, and Origen and Didymus and Evagrius, who refashioned the Greek myth-makings, and recounted to us cycles and changes of certain bodies and souls by the derangements and dreamings of the mind, and impiously ran drunken riot against the return to life of the dead; and also what was written by Theodoret against the right faith and against the twelve chapters of the blessed Cyril, and the letter said to be by Ibas. And the faith of the sixth holy synod, lately gathered in this imperial city under our emperor Constantine, who is in the divine repose, which received its authority the more fully in that the pious emperor secured its tomes with seals, for safety in every age, we again confess that we keep inviolate; the synod which in a God-loving manner made plain that we are to hold two natural volitions, that is, wills, and two natural energies in the incarnate dispensation of our one Lord Jesus Christ, the true God; condemning by the vote of piety those who counterfeited the straight doctrine of the truth and taught the peoples one will and one energy in the one Lord our God Jesus Christ: we mean Theodore of Pharan, Cyrus of Alexandria, Honorius of Rome, Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul, Peter, who presided in this God-guarded city, Macarius, who was bishop of the Antiochenes, Stephen his disciple, and the senseless Polychronius; thereby keeping untouched the common body of Christ our God. And to speak in sum, we decree that the faith of all the men who have been distinguished in the Church of God, who have become lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, shall hold firm and remain unshaken until the consummation of the age, and also their God-delivered writings and doctrines; rejecting and anathematising all whom they rejected and anathematised, as enemies of the truth, who raged vain things against God and practised unrighteousness on high. And if anyone at all does not hold and embrace the aforesaid doctrines of piety, and so believe and proclaim, but attempts to go contrary to them, let him be anathema, according to the definition already set forth by the aforesaid holy and blessed Fathers, and let him be thrust out and fall away from the Christian roll as an alien. For we have altogether resolved neither to add anything to what has been previously defined, nor indeed to take anything away, nor are we able to do so on any account whatever.

And this also has seemed good to this holy synod, most excellently and most earnestly: that from now on there should remain firm and secure, for the care of souls and the healing of passions, the eighty-five canons received and ratified by the holy and blessed Fathers before us, and moreover handed down to us in the name of the holy and glorious Apostles. But since in these canons we are commanded to receive the Constitutions of the same holy Apostles through Clement, into which long ago certain spurious things, foreign to piety, were inserted by the heterodox to the harm of the Church, which have darkened for us the comely beauty of the divine doctrines, we have fittingly made the rejection of such Constitutions, for the edification and security of the most Christian flock, in no way admitting the offspring of heretical false speaking, nor weaving them into the genuine and entire teaching of the Apostles. And we set our seal also upon all the other sacred canons set forth by our holy and blessed Fathers, that is, of the three hundred and eighteen holy Fathers assembled at Nicaea, and of those at Ancyra; further also of those at Neocaesarea, likewise also of those at Gangra; and besides these also of those at Antioch in Syria; moreover also of those at Laodicea in Phrygia; further also of the one hundred and fifty who came together in this God-guarded and imperial city, and of the two hundred who were formerly assembled in the metropolis of the Ephesians; and of the six hundred and thirty holy and blessed Fathers at Chalcedon; likewise also of those at Sardica; further also of those at Carthage; and furthermore also of those who came together again in this God-guarded and imperial city under Nectarius, the president of this imperial city, and Theophilus, who was archbishop of Alexandria; moreover also of Dionysius, who was archbishop of the great city of Alexandria, and of Peter, who was of Alexandria, and a martyr, and of Gregory, who was bishop of Neocaesarea, the Wonderworker, of Athanasius archbishop of Alexandria, of Basil archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, of Gregory bishop of Nyssa, of Gregory the Theologian, of Amphilochius of Iconium, of Timothy, who was formerly archbishop of Alexandria, of Theophilus, archbishop of the same great city of the Alexandrians, of Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, and of Gennadius, who was patriarch of this God-guarded and imperial city; and further also the canon set forth by Cyprian, who was archbishop of the country of the Africans and a martyr, and by the synod with him, which prevailed in the places of the aforesaid presidents, and there only, according to the custom handed down to them; and that no one be permitted to counterfeit or to set aside the canons declared above, or to receive other canons besides those here set forth, composed under false titles by certain persons who attempted to peddle the truth. And if anyone be caught innovating upon any of the said canons, or attempting to overturn it, he shall be liable according to that canon, receiving the penance as it itself prescribes, and being healed through it in that very thing in which he offends.

Since our pious and Christ-loving emperor has addressed this holy and ecumenical council, that it should render those enrolled in the clergy, who also convey divine things to others, pure and blameless ministers, and worthy of the noetic sacrifice of the great God, who is both Victim and High Priest, and should cleanse away the pollutions rubbed onto them from unlawful marriages; and since, with regard to this, those of the most holy Church of the Romans proposed that the canon of akribeia be kept, and those under the throne of this God-guarded and imperial city the canon of love for mankind and compassion: we, mixing both into one, in a fatherly and at the same time God-loving manner, so that we might leave neither the gentle slack nor the severe harsh, and especially since the fall through ignorance extends to a multitude of not a few men, judge it right that those who have been entangled in two marriages, and who up to the fifteenth of the past month of January, of the past fourth indiction, in the year six thousand one hundred and ninety-nine, have been enslaved to the sin and have not chosen to return to sobriety from it, be subjected to canonical deposition. But as for those who fell into this passion of digamy, yet before our cognizance recognised what was profitable, and cut the evil off from themselves, and drove far away this strange and bastard union, or those whose wives by the second marriage have already died, or who themselves have looked towards conversion, having learned chastity instead and having quickly forgotten their former transgressions, whether they happen to be presbyters or deacons: it has seemed good that these cease from every priestly ministry, that is, function, having now been placed under penance for a certain fixed time; but that they share in the honour of seat and of standing, being content with precedence and weeping before the Lord that the transgression committed out of ignorance be forgiven them; for it is inconsistent that one who ought to tend his own wounds should bless another. But those joined to one wife, if the woman taken happened to be a widow, and likewise also those who after ordination unlawfully entered into one marriage, that is, presbyters and deacons and subdeacons, having been already excluded for a short time from the sacred ministry and placed under penance, are to be restored again to their own grades, in no way advancing to another, higher grade, their unlawful cohabitation having manifestly been dissolved. These things we have laid down concerning those caught, up to the fifteenth, as has been said, of the month of January of the fourth indiction, in the offences declared above, and for those of the priesthood only; decreeing from the present, and renewing the canon which prescribes, that he who after baptism has been entangled in two marriages, or has acquired a concubine, cannot be a bishop, or presbyter, or deacon, or at all of the priestly roll; likewise that he who has taken a widow, or a woman put away, or a courtesan, or a household slave, or one of those on the stage, cannot be a bishop, or presbyter, or at all of the priestly roll.

If any bishop, or presbyter, or deacon, or subdeacon, or reader, or cantor, or doorkeeper has intercourse with a woman dedicated to God, let him be deposed, as having corrupted the bride of Christ; and if a layman, let him be excommunicated.

Let no one of those on the priestly roll keep in his household a woman or a maidservant other than the unsuspected persons mentioned in the canon, thereby keeping himself beyond reproach. And if anyone transgresses what has been defined by us, let him be deposed. And let eunuchs also observe this same thing, taking forethought for their own blamelessness; and if they transgress, if they are clerics, let them be deposed, and if laymen, let them be excommunicated.

Since it is said in the apostolic canons that of those advanced to the clergy unmarried, only readers and cantors may marry, we also, observing this, decree that from now on no subdeacon, or deacon, or presbyter, after the ordination upon him, has in any way licence to contract a marital cohabitation for himself. And if he should dare to do this, let him be deposed. And if any of those who come into the clergy wishes to be joined to a wife by the law of marriage, let him do this before the ordination of subdeacon, or deacon, or presbyter.

Since we have learned that in some of the churches there are deacons who hold ecclesiastical offices, and that hence some of them, making use of arrogance and self-will, sit before the presbyters, we decree that the deacon, even if he be in a dignity, that is, in an ecclesiastical office of whatever kind, shall not, being such, sit before the presbyter; except when, acting in the person of his own patriarch or metropolitan, he comes to another city on some matter of business; for then he will be honoured as filling the place of that one. And if anyone, using tyrannical audacity, should dare to do such a thing, let such a one, brought down from his own rank, become last of all of the order in which he is enrolled in his own church, since our Lord exhorts us not to rejoice in the first places at table, according to the teaching contained in the holy evangelist Luke as from our Lord and God Himself. For He spoke to those who were invited a parable of this kind: "When you are invited by anyone to a wedding, do not recline in the first place, lest one more honoured than you be invited by him, and he who invited you and him come and say to you, Give this man place; and then you will begin with shame to take the last place. But when you are invited, recline in the last place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, Friend, go up higher; then you will have glory before those who recline at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" [Luke 14:8-11]. The same shall be observed also in the case of the other sacred orders; since we know that spiritual dignities are better than worldly ones.

Wishing ourselves also to hold in all things what was decreed by our holy Fathers, we renew also the canon which prescribes that synods of the bishops in each province take place every year, wherever the bishop of the metropolis shall approve. But since, because of the incursions of the barbarians and because of other causes that befall, the presidents of the churches are unable to hold the synods twice a year, it has seemed good that by all means once a year the synod of the aforesaid bishops take place in each province, on account of the ecclesiastical matters that, as is likely, spring up, from the holy feast of Pascha until the completion of the month of October of each year, in the place which the bishop of the metropolis, as has been said before, shall approve; and that the bishops who do not come together, while staying in their own cities, and that in good health, and free of every unavoidable and necessary occupation, be rebuked in a brotherly manner.

Let it not be permitted to any cleric to keep a taverner's shop. For if it is not allowed to such a one to enter into a tavern, how much less to serve others in it, and to take in hand what is not lawful for him? And if he should do any such thing, let him either cease or be deposed.

A bishop, or presbyter, or deacon who takes interest, or what are called hundredths, let him either cease or be deposed.

Let no one of those enrolled in the priestly order, or a layman, eat the unleavened bread from the Jews, or be on familiar terms with them, or summon them in sickness and receive treatment from them, or bathe together with them in baths at all; and if anyone should attempt to do this, if he be a cleric, let him be deposed; and if a layman, let him be excommunicated.

And this too has come to our knowledge, that in Africa and Libya and in other places the most God-beloved presidents in those parts do not decline to live with their own wives even after the ordination that has proceeded upon them, placing before the peoples a stumbling-block and a scandal. Since therefore we have much zeal to do all things for the benefit of the flocks under our hand, it has seemed good that such a thing in no way happen from now on. And this we say not for the setting aside or overturning of what was apostolically legislated, but taking forethought for the salvation and the advance to the better of the peoples, and so as not to give any cause of blame against the priestly estate. For the divine Apostle says: "Do all things to the glory of God; become without offence both to Jews and to Greeks and to the Church of God; even as I also please all in all things, not seeking my own advantage but that of the many, that they may be saved; become imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ." And if anyone be detected doing such a thing, let him be deposed.

Since we have learned that in the Church of the Romans it has been handed down, in the form of a canon, that those who are about to be deemed worthy of ordination as deacon or presbyter should profess that they will no longer be joined to their wives; we, following the ancient canon of apostolic exactness and order, wish the lawful marriages of men in sacred orders to be in force from now on also, in no way dissolving their union with their wives, or depriving them of their intercourse with one another at the fitting time. So that, if anyone is found worthy of ordination as subdeacon, or deacon, or presbyter, let him in no way be prevented from being raised to such a rank while living with a lawful wife; nor indeed at the time of his ordination let him be required to profess that he will withdraw from lawful intercourse with his own wife; lest we should thereby be forced to insult marriage, which was legislated by God and blessed by his presence; for the voice of the Gospel cries: What God has yoked together, let not man separate; and the Apostle teaches: Marriage is honourable, and the bed undefiled; and: Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek release. And we know, as those also who assembled in Carthage said, taking forethought for the gravity of life of the ministers, that the subdeacons, who handle the holy mysteries, and the deacons and presbyters, should, within their own set terms, abstain also from their consorts; so that what was handed down through the Apostles, and held from antiquity itself, we too may likewise keep, knowing a time for every matter, and especially for fasting and prayer. For those who attend upon the altar must, at the time of handling the holy things, be continent in all things, so that they may be able to obtain what they ask of God in simplicity. If anyone, therefore, moved contrary to the apostolic canons, should dare to deprive any of those in holy orders, presbyters, we mean, or deacons, or subdeacons, of union and communion with the lawful wife, let him be deposed; likewise also if any presbyter or deacon casts out his own wife on the pretext of piety, let him be excommunicated; and if he persists, let him be deposed.

Let the canon of our holy and God-bearing Fathers prevail in this also: that a presbyter be not ordained before thirty years of age, even if the man be altogether worthy, but that he be kept waiting. For the Lord Jesus Christ was baptised in his thirtieth year, and began to teach. Likewise let neither a deacon be ordained before twenty-five years of age, nor a deaconess before forty years of age.

Let a subdeacon be ordained not less than twenty years old. And if anyone in any priestly station whatever should be ordained contrary to the years defined, let him be deposed.

Since the book of the Acts relates that seven deacons were appointed by the Apostles, and those of the synod of Neocaesarea, in the canons set forth by them, thus plainly declared that deacons ought to be seven according to the canon, even if the city be very large, and you will be persuaded of this also from the book of the Acts; we, having applied the mind of the Fathers to the apostolic saying, found that their discourse was not about the men who minister to the mysteries, but about the service in the needs of the tables, the book of the Acts reading thus: In those days, when the disciples were multiplying, there arose a murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were overlooked in the daily ministration. Then the twelve, having called the multitude of the disciples to them, said: It is not pleasing that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Look out, therefore, brethren, from among you seven men who are well attested, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this need; but we will persevere in prayer and in 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 proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the Apostles [Acts 6:1-6]. Expounding these things, the teacher of the Church John Chrysostom goes through them thus: It is worth marvelling how the multitude was not divided over the choice of the men, how the Apostles were not rejected by them. But what dignity these men had, and what kind of ordination they received, it is necessary to learn. Was it that of the deacons? And yet this is not so in the churches. But is the administration that of the presbyters? And yet there was not yet any bishop, but the Apostles only. Hence I think it is plain and manifest that the name was neither that of deacons nor that of presbyters. On these grounds, therefore, we too proclaim that the aforesaid seven deacons are not to be taken as those who minister to the mysteries, according to the teaching interpreted above, but that they were those entrusted with the administration of the common need of those then gathered together; who in this too have become for us a pattern of loving-kindness and zeal towards those in need.

Since clerics of various churches, leaving their own churches in which they were ordained, have run off to other bishops, and without the consent of their own bishop have been enrolled in other churches, and from this it has come about that they have become insubordinate; we decree that, from the month of January of the past fourth indiction, none of all the clerics, in whatever rank he may be, shall have leave, without the written release of his own bishop, to be enrolled in another church; otherwise he who from now on does not observe this, but, so far as in him lies, puts to shame the one who laid ordination upon him, let him be deposed, both he himself and the one who unreasonably received him.

Clerics who, by reason of a barbarian incursion, or otherwise in some way through circumstance, have migrated elsewhere, we command, whenever the occasion has ceased for them, or the incursions of the barbarians on account of which they made their withdrawal, to return again to their own churches, and not to leave them for long without excuse. And if anyone does not conduct himself according to the present canon, let him be excommunicated until he runs back to his own church. And let this same thing be done also in the case of the bishop who detains him.

That 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, gathering from the divine Scripture the thoughts and judgements of the truth, and not transgressing the definitions already laid down, or the tradition from the God-bearing Fathers. And if a word of Scripture should be raised, let them not interpret it otherwise than as the luminaries and teachers of the Church have set it forth through their own writings; and let them rather win approval in these than by composing discourses of their own; lest at times, being at a loss for this, they should fall away from what is fitting. For through the teaching of the aforesaid Fathers the peoples, coming to knowledge of what is excellent and to be chosen, and of what is unprofitable and to be rejected, reform their life for the better, and are not caught by the passion of ignorance, but, attending to the teaching, they whet themselves not to suffer evil, and, by fear of the punishments hanging over them, work out their own salvation.

Let it not be permitted to a bishop to teach publicly in another city which does not belong to him. And if anyone is caught doing this, let him cease from the episcopate, and let him perform the functions of a presbyter.

Those who become liable on canonical charges, and for this reason are subjected to complete and perpetual deposition, and are thrust out into the place of the laymen: if, looking of their own will towards conversion, they renounce the sin through which they have fallen from grace, and make themselves wholly strangers to it, let them be tonsured in the form of the clergy; but if they do not choose this of their own free will, let them grow their hair like the laymen, as having preferred the way of life in the world to the heavenly life.

Those who are ordained for money, whether bishops or clerics of any kind whatever, and not according to examination and choice of life, we command to be deposed; and also those who ordained them.

Concerning this: that none of the bishops, or presbyters, or deacons, when imparting the immaculate communion, should exact from the one who partakes, for the sake of such partaking, obols, or any kind of thing whatever. For grace is not sold, nor do we impart the sanctification of the Spirit for money; but it is to be imparted without guile to those worthy of the gift. And if any of those enrolled in the clergy be seen demanding any kind of thing whatever from him to whom he imparts the immaculate communion, let him be deposed, as a zealot of the error and wickedness of Simon.

Let it not be permitted to any of those enrolled in the priestly order, or of the monks, to go up to horse races, or to countenance theatrical games; but if any cleric be invited to a wedding, whenever the games meant for deception come in, let him rise up and withdraw immediately, for so the teaching of the Fathers commands us. And if anyone is caught in this, let him either desist, or be deposed.

In addition to the others, we renew also the canon which declares that the rural or country parishes in each church shall remain unshaken 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 there has been, or should be, any dispute about them, it is to be permitted to those who say they are wronged to raise the matter before the synod of the province.

A presbyter who through ignorance has been caught up in an unlawful marriage is to share in the seat, according to what has been legislated for us by the sacred canon, but to abstain from the other functions; for pardon is enough for such a one. For one who ought to tend his own wounds to bless another is incongruous; for a blessing is an imparting of sanctification; and he who does not have this, because of the transgression from ignorance, how will he impart it to another? Let him therefore bless neither publicly nor privately, nor distribute the body of the Lord to others, nor perform any other liturgical service; but, content with his precedence, let him weep before the Lord that the lawless act done in ignorance be forgiven him. For it is manifest that such an unlawful marriage will be dissolved, and the man will in no way have fellowship with her through whom he has been deprived of the sacred function.

Let none of those enrolled in the clergy put on unsuitable clothing, neither when staying in the city nor when walking on the road; but let him use the garments already assigned to those enrolled in the clergy. And if anyone should do such a thing, let him be excommunicated for one week.

Since we have learned that in various churches, grapes being brought to the altar according to a certain custom that has prevailed, the ministers, joining them to the bloodless sacrifice of the offering, thus distribute both together to the people; we have seen fit that none of those in holy orders do this any longer, but that they impart to the people the offering alone, for quickening and remission of sins; and that, reckoning the bringing of the grapes as firstfruits, the priests, blessing them separately, impart of them to those who ask, for thanksgiving to the Giver of the fruits, through which our bodies, according to the divine ordinance, grow and are nourished. If, therefore, any cleric should act contrary to what has been ordained, let him be deposed.

The canon of those in Carthage declares that the holy things of the altar are not to be performed except by fasting men, one day of the year being excepted, on which the Lord's Supper is celebrated; those divine Fathers having perhaps used such oikonomia at that time on account of certain local reasons profitable to the Church. Since, therefore, nothing induces us to abandon akribeia, we decree, following the apostolic and patristic traditions, that it is not right in Lent, in the last week, to break the fast on the fifth day, and so to dishonour the whole of Lent.

Wishing to do all things for the edification of the Church, we have determined to exercise oikonomia towards the priests in the barbarian churches as well; so that, if they think they ought to go beyond the apostolic canon, the one concerning not casting out one's own wife on the pretext of piety, and to do more than what has been defined, and on this account, by agreement with their own consorts, abstain from intercourse with one another, we decree that these no longer live with them in any manner whatever, so that thereby they may furnish us with complete proof of their promise. And we have conceded this to them for no other reason than on account of the littleness of their mind and the alien and unsettled character of their ways.

Clerics who celebrate the liturgy or baptise in the houses of prayer that are within a dwelling, we decree are to do this with the consent of the bishop of the place; so that, if any cleric does not so observe this, let him be deposed.

Since it has come to our knowledge that in the country of the Armenians those who celebrate the bloodless sacrifice offer wine alone on the holy table, not mixing water with it, putting forward the teacher of the Church, John Chrysostom, who says these things in his interpretation of the Gospel according to Matthew: For what reason did he, having risen, drink not water but wine? Tearing up another wicked heresy by the roots. For since there are some who use water in the mysteries, showing that both when he delivered the mysteries, and when, having risen, he set out a plain table without mysteries, he used wine, of the fruit, he says, of the vine; and a vine produces wine, not water; and from this they think that the teacher overturns the offering of water in the holy sacrifice: so that they may not from now on be held fast by ignorance, we disclose in an Orthodox manner the mind of the Father. For since the wicked heresy of the Hydroparastatae is ancient, who in their own sacrifice use water alone instead of wine, this God-bearing man, refuting the lawless teaching of such a heresy, and showing that they proceed contrary to the apostolic tradition, composed the argument cited. For in the church under him also, where he was entrusted with the pastoral governance, he handed down that water be mixed with wine whenever the bloodless sacrifice had to be celebrated, pointing to the mingling of blood and water from the precious side of our Redeemer and Saviour Christ God, which was poured out for the quickening of the whole world and the redemption of sins; and in every church, indeed, where the spiritual luminaries have shone forth, this God-given order prevails. For James also, the brother according to the flesh of Christ our God, who was first entrusted with the throne of the church of Jerusalem, and Basil, the archbishop of Caesarea, whose fame has run through the whole inhabited world, having handed down to us in writing the mystical sacred rite, have set forth that the holy cup in the divine liturgy be thus completed from water and wine. And the holy Fathers assembled in Carthage made mention thus expressly: that in the holy things nothing more be offered than the body and the blood of the Lord, as the Lord himself handed down, that is, bread and wine mixed with water. If, therefore, any bishop or presbyter does not act according to the order handed down by the Apostles, mixing water with wine and so offering the immaculate sacrifice, let him be deposed, as proclaiming the mystery imperfectly and innovating in the things handed down.

Since we have learned that in the country of the Armenians only those of priestly descent are enrolled in the clergy (those who undertake to do this are following Jewish customs); and that some of them, even without being tonsured, are appointed sacred cantors and readers of the divine temple; we have seen fit that from now on it be not permitted to those who wish to advance any into the clergy to look to the descent of the one being promoted; but, examining whether they are worthy, according to the rules laid down in the sacred canons, to be enrolled in the clergy, to promote these as ecclesiastics, whether they are descended from priestly forebears or not. And also not to permit anyone at all to proclaim the divine words to the people from the ambo, in the rank of those enrolled in the clergy, unless such a one has received the priestly tonsure and has canonically received the blessing from his own shepherd. And if anyone is caught acting contrary to what has been written above, let him be excommunicated.

Since the priestly canon also declares this clearly, that the crime of conspiracy or of faction is altogether forbidden even by the laws outside the Church, and much more is it fitting to forbid this from happening in the Church of God; we too are careful to observe that, if any clerics or monks should be found either conspiring, or forming factions, or hatching plots against bishops or fellow clerics, let them fall altogether from their own rank.

Let it not be permitted to any of all the metropolitans, when a bishop who ranks under his throne dies, to take away or appropriate his goods, or those of his church; but let them be under the safekeeping of the clergy of the church of which the deceased was president, until the promotion of another bishop; unless no clerics were left in that same church; for then the metropolitan shall keep these things undiminished, rendering everything to the bishop who is to be ordained.

Renewing what was legislated by the one hundred and fifty holy Fathers who assembled in this God-guarded and imperial city, and by the six hundred and thirty who were gathered in Chalcedon, we decree that the throne of Constantinople shall enjoy equal privileges with the throne of Elder Rome, and in ecclesiastical matters be magnified as that one is, being second after it; after which let the throne of the great city of Alexandria be numbered, then that of Antioch, and after this, that of the city of Jerusalem.

Since at various times there have been barbarian incursions, and very many cities have thereby been brought under the hand of the lawless, so that thereby the president of such a city has not been able, after his ordination, to take possession of his own throne and be settled in it with priestly installation, and so, according to the custom that has prevailed, to perform and administer the ordinations and all the things that belong to the bishop; we, preserving for the priesthood its honour and reverence, and in no way wishing the violence of the heathen to be exercised to the ruin of ecclesiastical rights, have seen fit that freedom from prejudice be preserved for those so ordained, and who on account of the cause set forth have not been installed in their own thrones; so that they may both canonically perform ordinations of various clerics, and use the authority of the presidency according to its proper limit, and that every administration proceeding from them be firm and lawful. For when akribeia has been circumscribed by the time of necessity, the limit of oikonomia shall not be restricted.

We too observe the canon laid down by our Fathers, which declares thus: If any city has been made new by imperial authority, or should be made new hereafter, let the order of ecclesiastical affairs also follow the civil and public arrangements.

Since our brother and fellow minister John, president of the island of Cyprus, has migrated together with his own people from the said island to the Hellespontine province, both on account of the barbarian incursions, and in order to be freed from heathen slavery and to be subject purely to the sceptres of the most Christian rule, by the providence of the man-loving God and the labour of our Christ-loving and pious emperor, we see fit that the privileges granted to the throne of the aforesaid man by the God-bearing Fathers who formerly assembled in Ephesus be preserved unaltered; so that New Justinianopolis shall have the right of Constantinople, and the most God-beloved bishop set over it shall preside over all those of the Hellespontine province, and be ordained by his own bishops, according to the ancient custom. For our God-bearing Fathers also determined that the customs in each church be observed; the bishop of the city of Cyzicus being subject to the president of the said Justinianopolis, in imitation of all the other bishops who are under the aforementioned most God-beloved president John, by whom, when need calls, the bishop of that same city of Cyzicus also shall be ordained.

Since to cleave to God, through withdrawal from the tumults of life, is very salutary, we ought not to admit, without examination and out of season, those who choose the solitary life, but to keep in their case also the rule handed down to us by the Fathers; so that the profession of the life according to God must be accepted then, as being now firm and made from knowledge and judgement, once reason has reached its completion. Let him, therefore, who is about to come under the monastic yoke be not less than ten years old, the testing in this matter also resting with the one who presides, if he considers it more profitable that the time be increased for him, for his introduction into and establishment in the life. For although Basil the Great, in his sacred canons, legislates that she who willingly offers herself to God and embraces virginity, when she is completing her seventeenth year, be numbered in the order of virgins; yet, following the example concerning widows and deaconesses, we have proportionately fixed those who have chosen the solitary life at the aforesaid time. For in the divine Apostle it is written that the widow in the Church is to be enrolled at sixty years of age; but the sacred canons have handed down that the deaconess be ordained at forty years of age, having seen the Church becoming stronger by divine grace and advancing forward, and the firmness and steadfastness of the faithful in keeping the divine commandments; which we too, having understood it very well, have now defined, quickly impressing, as a kind of seal, the blessing of grace on him who is about to begin the contests according to God, thereby leading him on so as not to hesitate and shrink back for long, or rather also urging him on to the choice and establishment of the good.

Those in cities or villages who wish to withdraw into enclosures and to give heed to themselves alone must first enter a monastery and be trained in the anchoritic way of life; and for a period of three years be subject in the fear of God to the head of the monastery, and fulfil obedience in all things, as is fitting; and so, professing their resolve for such a life, and that they embrace it willingly and with their whole heart, be examined by the local president. Then, in this way, for another year they must persevere outside the enclosure, so that their aim may be the more fully made manifest. For then they will give full assurance that they pursue this stillness not hunting after empty glory, but for the sake of the truly good itself. And after the completion of so long a time, if they abide in the same resolve, they are to be enclosed, and it is no longer to be permitted to them to depart from such solitude when they wish; except if they be drawn to this for the common profit and benefit, or by some other necessity pressing them toward death, and then with the blessing of the local bishop. And those who, apart from the reasons stated, undertake to go out of their dwellings are, in the first place, to be shut up against their will in the said enclosure, and then to be treated with fastings and other hardships, knowing, according to what is written, that No one who has put his hand to the plough and turned back is fit for the kingdom of the heavens.

As for the so-called hermits, who, dressed in black and with long hair on their heads, go about the cities, living among lay men and women and bringing insult upon their own profession, we decree that, if they choose to have their hair shorn and to receive the habit of the other monks, they be settled in a monastery and enrolled among the brethren. But if they do not choose this, they are to be driven out of the cities altogether and to dwell in the deserts, from which they also fashioned their names for themselves.

It is permitted to a Christian to choose the ascetic life and, having put away the much-troubled storm of the affairs of life, to enter a monastery and be tonsured according to the monastic habit, even if he has been caught in any fault whatever. For our Saviour God said: The one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. Since therefore the monastic way of life inscribes for us as on a pillar the life in repentance, we give our approval to him who genuinely attaches himself to it; and no means whatever shall hinder him from the fulfilment of his own aim.

A monk caught in fornication, or taking a woman to himself for the fellowship of marriage and for living together, shall be subjected to the penances of fornicators according to the canons.

Since we have learned that in certain women's monasteries those who are about to be deemed worthy of that holy habit are first dressed, by those who bring them forward, in silks and in garments of every kind, and moreover in ornaments adorned with gold and stones, and so, approaching the altar, are stripped of so great an array of material things, and straightway the blessing of the habit is performed upon them and they are clothed in the black garment: we decree that from now on this be done no more. For it is not holy that she who has already by her own choice put away all the pleasantness of life, and embraced the way of life according to God, and confirmed it with unswerving thoughts, and so come to the monastery, should through such corruptible and fleeting adornment come again into remembrance of the things of which she had already made forgetfulness; and from this become wavering and be troubled in her soul, as with waves that flood over and whirl this way and that, so that at times she no longer lets fall even a tear, nor shows forth through the body the compunction in her heart. And even if some small tear, as is likely, should spring forth, it is reckoned by those who see it to have come forth not so much for the sake of her disposition toward the ascetic struggle as because she is leaving the world and the things in the world.

Women who choose the ascetic life and are enrolled in a monastery, let them not go out at all. But if some unavoidable necessity should draw them to this, let them do it with the blessing and permission of the superior; and then not alone by themselves, but with some elderly women who hold the first place in the monastery, at the command of the abbess; but they are not permitted at all to sleep outside. And men also who pursue the solitary life, when need presses, let them too go out with the blessing of him who has been entrusted with the abbacy. So let those who transgress the definition now laid down by us, whether they be men or women, be subjected to fitting penances.

Let no woman sleep in a men's monastery, nor a man in a women's. For the faithful must be clear of every stumbling block and scandal, and order their own life toward what is seemly and acceptable to the Lord. And if anyone does this, whether he be a cleric or a layman, let him be excommunicated.

The wife of him who is advanced to the presidency of a bishopric, having been separated beforehand from her own husband by common consent, after his ordination to the episcopate let her enter a monastery built far from the bishop's residence, and let her enjoy provision from the bishop; and if she proves worthy, let her also be raised to the dignity of the diaconate.

Renewing this sacred canon also, we decree that monasteries once consecrated by the judgement of a bishop remain monasteries for ever, and that the things belonging to them be kept for the monastery, and that they can no longer become secular dwellings, nor be given out to secular men by anyone at all; and even if this has been done until now, we decree that it in no way be upheld. And those who from the present undertake to do this are to be subject to the penances from the canons.

No one at all, whether of the laity or of the clergy, is to play at dice from now on. And if anyone should be detected doing such a thing, if he be a cleric, let him be deposed; and if a layman, let him be excommunicated.

This holy and ecumenical council altogether forbids the performing of the so-called mimes and their shows, and then indeed also of the spectacles of the hunts, and of the dances on the stage. And if anyone despises the present canon and gives himself over to any of these forbidden things, if he be a cleric, let him be deposed; and if a layman, let him be excommunicated.

On all the days of the fasts of holy Lent, except Saturday and Sunday and the holy day of the Annunciation, let the sacred liturgy of the presanctified be celebrated.

Since kinship according to the spirit is greater than the union of bodies, and we have come to know that in some places certain persons who receive children from holy and saving baptism afterwards contract a marital cohabitation with the widowed mothers of those children, we decree that from the present nothing of the kind be done. And if any, after the present canon, should be detected doing this, first let such persons separate from this unlawful cohabitation, and then let them also be subjected to the penances of fornicators.

Since the divine Scripture thus clearly teaches us, You shall not go in to any that is near of kin to your flesh, to uncover his shame, the God-bearing Basil enumerated in his own canons some of the forbidden marriages, passing over most in silence, and in both ways securing what is profitable for us. For, declining the multitude of shameful names, so as not to soil his discourse with the words, he comprehended the impurities under general names, through which he pointed out to us comprehensively the unlawful marriages. But since through such silence, and through the indistinctness of the prohibition of lawless marriages, nature confounded itself, we have seen fit to set forth more nakedly the matters concerning this, decreeing from now on that he who is joined in the fellowship of marriage to his own first cousin; or a father and son to a mother and daughter; or a father and son to two maiden sisters; or a mother and daughter to two brothers; or two brothers to two sisters, fall under the canon of seven years, on their openly separating from the unlawful cohabitation.

Since we have learned that those in the city of the Romans, in the holy fasts of Lent, fast on its Saturdays, contrary to the ecclesiastical order handed down, it seemed good to the holy synod that in the Church of the Romans also the canon be held unshakably which says: If any cleric be found fasting on the holy Sunday, or on the Saturday, except the one and only one, let him be deposed; and if a layman, let him be excommunicated.

Likewise we have learned that in the country of the Armenians and in other places, on the Saturdays and on the Sundays of holy Lent, some eat eggs and cheese. This too, therefore, has seemed good: that the Church of God throughout the whole inhabited world, following one order, keep the fast, and abstain, as from every kind of thing slaughtered, so also from egg and cheese, which are the fruit and the produce of those things from which we abstain. And if they do not observe this, if they be clerics, let them be deposed; and if laymen, let them be excommunicated.

That honey and milk ought not to be offered on the altars.

Let none of those ranked among the laity give the divine mysteries to himself when a bishop, or presbyter, or deacon is present. And he who dares any such thing, as doing contrary to what has been ordained, let him be excommunicated for one week, being taught thereby not to think beyond what one ought to think.

In no way let baptism be performed in a house of prayer that is inside a house; but those who are about to be deemed worthy of the spotless illumination, let them come to the catholic churches, and there let them enjoy this gift. And if anyone be caught not keeping what has been decreed by us, if he be a cleric, let him be deposed; and if a layman, let him be excommunicated.

Since the Apostle cries out that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit, it is evident that he also who makes himself familiar with the adversary becomes one with him by the union with him. As for those, therefore, who pretend to be possessed by demons, and by depravity of manners feignedly put on their behaviour, it has seemed good that they be punished in every manner, and that they be subjected to such hardships and toils as those who are truly possessed by demons would deservedly be subjected to for deliverance from the operation of the demon.

Those who give themselves over to soothsayers, or to the so-called centurions, or to any such, in order to learn from them whatever they may wish to have revealed to them, let them, according to what was formerly decreed concerning them by the Fathers, fall under the canon of six years. And to this same penance must be subjected also those who lead about bears or such animals, for the sport and harm of the simpler folk, and who proclaim fortune, and fate, and genealogy, and a crowd of such words according to the drivel of error; and the so-called cloud-chasers, and charmers, and amulet-makers, and soothsayers. And those who persist in these things, and do not change and flee from these destructive and pagan practices, we decree to be cast out of the Church altogether, as the sacred canons also declare. For what fellowship has light with darkness? as the Apostle says; or what agreement has a temple of God with idols? or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever? and what concord has Christ with Beliar?

The so-called Calends, and the so-called Vota, and the so-called Brumalia, and the festival held on the first day of the month of March, we wish to be removed once and for all from the way of life of the faithful. And moreover the public dances of women, as indecent and able to cause much ruin and harm, and also the dances and rites performed, whether by men or by women, in the name of those falsely named gods among the Hellenes, according to some ancient custom alien to the life of Christians, we reject, decreeing that no man put on a woman's dress, or a woman that which is suited to men; nor put on masks, comic, or satyric, or tragic; nor shout out the name of the abominable Dionysus while pressing the grape in the winepresses; nor, when pouring the wine into the jars, stir up laughter, in the manner of ignorance or vanity, working the things of demonic error. Those therefore who from now on undertake to perform any of the aforesaid, being established in the knowledge of these things, these, if they be clerics, we command to be deposed; and if laymen, to be excommunicated.

The martyrologies falsely fabricated by the enemies of the truth, so that they might dishonour the martyrs of Christ and lead the hearers to unbelief, we command not to be made public in churches, but to be given over to fire. And those who accept them, or give heed to them as true, we anathematise.

That a layman ought not to raise a discourse or teach in public, thereby securing for himself the dignity of a teacher, but to yield to the order handed down by the Lord, and to open the ear to those who have received the grace of the word of teaching, and to be taught divine things by them. For in the one Church God has made different members, according to the voice of the Apostle; and Gregory the Theologian, interpreting this saying, plainly sets forth the order in these things, saying: This order let us reverence, brethren, this let us keep. Let one be an ear, another a tongue, another a hand, another something else; let one teach, another learn. And shortly after: And he who learns, in docility; and he who provides, in cheerfulness; and he who serves, in readiness; let us not all be a tongue, the readiest thing; not all apostles; not all prophets; let us not all interpret. And after some words: Why do you make yourself a shepherd, being a sheep? Why do you become the head, being a foot? Why do you attempt to be a general, being ranked among the soldiers? And elsewhere: Wisdom commands: Do not be quick in words; do not stretch yourself out beside the rich, being poor; nor seek to be wiser than the wise. And if anyone be caught infringing the present canon, let him be excommunicated for forty days.

The bonfires kindled at the new moons by some before their own workshops or houses, over which some also undertake to leap according to some ancient custom, we command from the present to be abolished. Whoever therefore does any such thing, if he be a cleric, let him be deposed; and if a layman, let him be excommunicated. For it is written in the fourth book of Kingdoms: And Manasseh built an altar to all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord, and made his children pass through the fire, and divined by omens, and practised augury, and made ventriloquists, and multiplied wizards, and multiplied the doing of what is evil before the Lord, so as to provoke him to anger [4 Kingdoms 21:5-6].

From the holy day of the resurrection of Christ our God until New Sunday, for the whole week the faithful must without fail give themselves in the holy churches to psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, rejoicing in Christ and keeping festival, and attending to the reading of the divine Scriptures, and delighting in the holy mysteries. For thus shall we be both risen together with Christ and exalted together with him. Let there therefore in no way be horse races or any other public spectacle held on the aforesaid days.

The divine Scripture has commanded us to abstain from blood, and from what is strangled, and from fornication. Those therefore who, for the sake of a gluttonous belly, prepare the blood of any animal whatever by some art so as to be edible, and so eat it, we fittingly censure. If anyone therefore from now on should undertake to eat the blood of an animal in any manner whatever, if he be a cleric, let him be deposed; and if a layman, let him be excommunicated.

Concerning its not being permitted to anyone at all to destroy or cut up the books of the Old and New Testament, and of our holy and approved preachers and teachers, or to give them over to the book-dealers, or to the so-called perfumers, or to anyone else whatever for destruction; unless perhaps one has been rendered entirely useless, whether by moths, or by water, or in some other manner. And he who from now on is caught doing any such thing, let him be excommunicated for a year. Likewise also he who buys such books: if he neither keeps them himself for his own benefit, nor gives them to another by way of kindness and for distribution, but undertakes to destroy them, let him be excommunicated.

Let it not be permitted to anyone at all who is numbered among the laity to go inside the sacred altar; the imperial power and authority being in no way barred from this, whenever it wishes to bring gifts to the Maker, according to a certain most ancient tradition.

Let it not be permitted to women to speak at the time of the divine liturgy; but according to the voice of Paul the Apostle, let them keep silence; for it is not permitted to them to speak, but to be in subjection, as the law also says; and if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home.

Those who are being taught the civil laws must not use the customs of the pagans, nor indeed be drawn to the theatres, or perform the so-called kylistrai, or clothe themselves in garments contrary to common use: neither at the time when they begin their studies, nor when they come to the end of them, nor, to speak generally, in the course of such education. And if anyone from now on shall dare to do this, let him be excommunicated.

Let it not be lawful for an Orthodox man to be joined to a heretical woman, nor indeed for an Orthodox woman to be yoked with a heretical man; but if anything of the kind should appear to have been done by anyone whatever, let the marriage be held void, and the lawless cohabitation be dissolved; for one must not mingle what cannot be mingled, nor join the wolf with the sheep, and the lot of sinners with the portion of Christ. And if anyone transgresses what we have decreed, let him be excommunicated. But if some, while still in unbelief and not yet numbered in the flock of the Orthodox, were joined to one another in lawful marriage, and then the one, having chosen the good, ran to the light of the truth, while the other was held fast by the bond of error, not choosing to gaze upon the divine rays (and the unbelieving wife is well pleased to live with the believing husband, or conversely the unbelieving husband with the believing wife), let them not be separated, according to the divine Apostle: for the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband.

Since the life-giving Cross has shown us salvation, we must use all diligence to render due honour to that through which we have been saved from the ancient fall. Wherefore, rendering veneration to it in mind and word and sense, we command that the figures of the cross which some make on the floor be by all means effaced, so that the trophy of our victory be not insulted by the trampling of those who walk. Those therefore who from now on make a figure of the cross upon the floor we decree to be excommunicated.

That one must not hold the so-called agapes in the Lord's houses, or in the churches, or eat inside the house, or spread couches. Those who dare to do this, let them either cease or be excommunicated.

Those who come to chant in the churches we wish neither to use disorderly cries and force nature to shouting, nor to add anything that is not fitting and proper to the church; but with much attention and compunction to offer the psalmodies to God, the overseer of hidden things. For the sacred oracle has taught that the sons of Israel shall be reverent.

That one must not, within the sacred precincts, set up a tavern, or set out wares of food, or make other sales, so as to keep the reverence due to the church. For our Saviour and God, training us by his way of life in the flesh, commanded us not to make the house of his Father a house of merchandise; and he also poured out the coins of the money-changers, and drove out those who were making the temple common. If then anyone is caught in the offence set forth, let him be excommunicated.

That those of priestly rank, or clerics, or ascetics must not bathe in a bath-house with women; nor any Christian layman; for this is the foremost reproach among the gentiles. And if anyone is caught in this, if he is a cleric, let him be deposed; if a layman, let him be excommunicated.

That those who are being illumined must learn the faith thoroughly, and on the fifth day of the week recite it to the bishop or to the presbyters.

Confessing the divine birth from the Virgin to have been without childbed, as being also formed without seed, and proclaiming this to all the flock, we subject to correction those who from ignorance do anything that ought not to be done. Wherefore, since some after the day of the holy Nativity of Christ our God are seen boiling fine flour and sharing it with one another, on the pretext, forsooth, of honouring the childbed of the immaculate Virgin Mother, we decree that nothing of the kind be done by the faithful. For it is no honour to the Virgin, who beyond mind and word bore in the flesh the uncontainable Word, to define and delineate what belongs to her ineffable birth-giving from things that are common and of our own condition. If then anyone from now on is caught doing any such thing, if he is a cleric, let him be deposed; if a layman, let him be excommunicated.

If any bishop, or presbyter, or deacon, or any of those numbered in the clergy, or a layman, having no graver necessity or difficult business such as to keep him away from his own church for a very long time, but staying in the city, does not come to the assembly on three Lord's days in three weeks, if he is a cleric, let him be deposed; if a layman, let him be removed from communion.

Since we have learned that in certain regions, in the Thrice-Holy Hymn, there is proclaimed by way of addition, after "Holy Immortal", the words "Who was crucified for us, have mercy on us"; and this was driven out of that hymn by the holy Fathers of old as foreign to piety, together with the lawless heretic who invented such a phrase; we also, confirming what was formerly piously enacted by our holy Fathers, anathematise those who, after the present definition, still receive such a phrase in churches, or in any other way join it to the Thrice-Holy Hymn. And if the transgressor of what has been decreed is of priestly rank, we command that he be stripped of the priestly dignity; and if a layman or a monk, that he be excommunicated.

In certain paintings of the venerable icons a lamb is portrayed, pointed out by the finger of the Forerunner, which was received as a type of grace, showing forth to us beforehand through the law the true Lamb, Christ our God. Embracing, then, the ancient types and shadows handed down to the Church, as symbols and foreshadowings of the truth, we prefer grace and truth, having received it as the fulfilment of the law. In order therefore that what is perfect may be delineated, even in the works of colour, before the eyes of all, we decree that from now on the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, Christ our God, be set up in his human form in the icons also, instead of the ancient lamb; through it perceiving the height of the humiliation of God the Word, and being led by the hand to the remembrance of his way of life in the flesh, of his passion and saving death, and of the redemption which thence came to the world.

Let no one give of the Eucharist to the bodies of the departed. For it is written, "Take, eat"; but the bodies of the dead can neither take nor eat.

Following the canonical ordinances of the Fathers, we decree also concerning infants: whenever reliable witnesses are not found who say that they were undoubtedly baptised, and they themselves, because of their age, are not able to answer concerning the mystagogy delivered to them, they ought to be baptised without any obstacle, lest such hesitation deprive them of such a cleansing of sanctification.

That on two or three witnesses every word is confirmed, we have received from Scripture. We determine therefore that slaves who are freed by their own masters shall enjoy this honour before three witnesses, who, being present, will add validity to the freedom, and will themselves furnish credibility to what has been done.

Those who, to the downfall of souls, gather together and maintain harlots, if they are clerics, we decree to be excommunicated and deposed; and if laymen, to be excommunicated.

She who has left her husband is an adulteress if she has gone to another, according to the holy and divine Basil, who most excellently gathered this from the prophecy of Jeremiah: that, "If a woman becomes another man's, she shall not return to her husband, but being defiled she shall be defiled" [Jeremiah 3:1]; and again, "He who keeps an adulteress is foolish and ungodly." If then she appears to have withdrawn from her husband without reason, he is worthy of pardon, and she of penances. And the pardon shall be given him to this end, that he be in communion with the Church. But he who leaves the wife lawfully joined to him and takes another is, according to the sentence of the Lord, subject to the judgement of adultery. And it has been laid down canonically by our Fathers that such as these be among the weepers for one year, among the hearers for two years, among the kneelers for three years, and in the seventh year stand with the faithful, and so be counted worthy of the offering, if indeed they repent with tears.

Let no one bring any beast whatever inside a holy church, unless someone travelling, when the greatest necessity overtakes him, lacking a hut and a lodging, puts up in such a church. For if the beast is not brought inside, it will sometimes perish; and he, by the loss of his beast of burden, and by being thereby without means to set out on his journey, will be given over to the danger of death. For we are taught that the sabbath was made for man; so that the preservation and freedom from harm of man is in every way to be held preferable. But if anyone is caught bringing a beast into a holy place without necessity, as has been said, if he is a cleric, let him be deposed; if a layman, let him be excommunicated.

The faithful, passing the days of the saving Passion in fasting and prayer and compunction of heart, must break the fast about the middle hours of the night of Great Saturday, since the divine Evangelists Matthew and Luke indicate the lateness of the night, the one by the words "Late on the sabbath" [Matthew 28:1], the other by "At deep dawn" [Luke 24:1].

We have received canonically from our God-bearing Fathers not to bend the knee on the Lord's days, honouring the resurrection of Christ. So then, that we may not be ignorant of the exactness of this observance, we make it plain to the faithful that after the evening entrance of those in holy orders to the altar on Saturday, according to the prevailing custom, no one is to bend the knee until the following evening, that of the Lord's day, at which, after the entrance at the lamp-lighting, we bend the knees again and so offer our prayers to the Lord. For, taking the night after Saturday as the forerunner of our Saviour's rising, we begin the hymns spiritually from then, bringing the feast out of darkness into light, so that from then, for a whole night and day, we keep the feast of the resurrection.

Women who give drugs that cause abortion, and women who take poisons that kill the unborn, we subject to the penance of a murderer.

Those who carry off women under the name of marriage, or who act together with or assist those who carry them off, the holy synod has decreed, if they are clerics, to fall from their own degree; and if laymen, to be anathematised.

She whose husband has gone away and is missing, and who lives with another before she has been assured of his death, commits adultery. Likewise also soldiers' wives who have married while their husbands were missing are subject to the same rule; as also those who, because of their husband's absence abroad, have not waited for his return. Yet here the matter admits of some pardon, because the supposition inclines rather towards death. And she who in ignorance married the man left for a time by his wife, and then was put away because the former wife returned to him, committed fornication, but in ignorance; she will not therefore be barred from marriage; but it is better if she remains as she is. But if the soldier should at length return, whose wife, because of his long absence, was joined to another man, let him, if he so chooses, take back again his own wife, pardon being given for her ignorance to her, and to the man who took her into his house by a second marriage.

Those who swear pagan oaths the canon subjects to penances; and we decree excommunication for them.

Those who from among heretics join themselves to Orthodoxy and to the portion of those who are being saved, we receive according to the order and custom set down below. Arians, and Macedonians, and Novatians, who call themselves Cathari and Aristeri, and the Quartodecimans, that is, Tetradites, and Apollinarians, we receive when they give libelli and anathematise every heresy that does not think as the holy catholic and apostolic Church of God thinks, and are sealed, that is, anointed first with the holy chrism on the forehead, and the eyes, and the nostrils, and the mouth, and the ears; and, sealing them, we say: "The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit." And concerning those who have been Paulianists and have then fled for refuge to the catholic Church, a definition has been set forth that they be rebaptised without fail. But Eunomians, who are baptised with a single immersion, and Montanists, who are here called Phrygians, and Sabellians, who hold that one and the same is both Son and Father, and who do certain other grievous things, and all the other heresies (since there are many of them here, especially those coming from the country of the Galatians), all of them who wish to join Orthodoxy we receive as pagans: and on the first day we make them Christians; and on the second, catechumens; then on the third we exorcise them, breathing three times into the face and into the ears; and so we catechise them, and make them spend time in the church and hear the Scriptures; and then we baptise them. And the Manichaeans too, and the Valentinians, and Marcionites, and those who come from similar heresies, we receive as pagans and rebaptise. But Nestorians, and Eutychians, and Severians, and those from similar heresies must make libelli, and anathematise their heresy, and Nestorius, and Eutyches, and Dioscorus, and Severus, and the other leaders of such heresies, and those who think as they do, and all the heresies mentioned above; and so partake of the holy communion.

Those who through baptism have put on Christ have professed to imitate his way of life in the flesh. Those therefore who arrange and dress up the hair of the head with contrivances of plaiting, to the harm of those who see them, and thereby set out a bait for unstable souls, we treat in a fatherly way with a suitable penance, training them and teaching them to live soberly, so that, leaving the deceit and vanity that come from matter, they may turn their mind continually to the imperishable and blessed life, and keep their conduct pure in fear, and draw near to God, as far as is attainable, through purity of life, and adorn the inner man rather than the outer with virtues and good and blameless ways; so as to bear in themselves no remnant of the perversity of the adversary. And if anyone lives contrary to the present canon, let him be excommunicated.

Those who either live with a wife, or otherwise without discrimination make the holy places common, and behave contemptuously towards them, and so remain in them, we command to be driven out even from the catechumens' galleries in the venerable churches. And if anyone does not observe this, if he is a cleric, let him be deposed; if a layman, let him be excommunicated.

He who takes into the communion of marriage a woman betrothed to another, while the man who betrothed her is still living, let him be subject to the charge of adultery.

This too we have learned is done in the country of the Armenians: that some, boiling pieces of meat inside the holy altars, offer them, assigning portions to the priests in the Jewish manner. Wherefore, keeping the Church unstained, we decree that it is not permitted to any of the priests to receive set-apart pieces of meat from those who offer them; but let them be content with whatever pleases the one who offers, such an offering being made outside the church. And if anyone does not do so, let him be excommunicated.

"Let your eyes look straight", and, "Keep your heart with all watchfulness", Wisdom commands; for the senses of the body readily introduce what is their own into the soul. We therefore command that from now on pictures which bewitch the sight, whether on panels or set up in any other way, and which corrupt the mind and stir it to the kindlings of shameful pleasures, be not portrayed at all, in any manner whatever. And if anyone attempts to do this, let him be excommunicated.

The divine Apostle loudly calls man, created according to the image of God, the body of Christ and a temple. Standing, then, above all sensible creation, he who through the saving Passion has attained the heavenly dignity, eating and drinking Christ, is continually refashioned for eternal life, being sanctified in soul and body by partaking of the divine grace; so that, if anyone wishes to partake of the immaculate body at the time of the synaxis, and to become one with it by participation, let him, forming his hands in the figure of a cross, so approach and receive the communion of grace. For those who make certain receptacles of gold or other material, instead of the hand, for the receiving of the divine gift, and by them are counted worthy of the immaculate communion, we in no way admit, as preferring lifeless and subordinate matter to the image of God. And if anyone is caught imparting the immaculate communion to those who bring such receptacles, let him be excommunicated, both he and the one who brings them.

Those who have received from God the authority to loose and to bind must consider the quality of the sin and the readiness of the sinner for conversion, and so apply treatment suited to the sickness, lest, using immoderation in either direction, he fall short of the salvation of the one who is sick. For the disease of sin is not simple, but manifold and of many forms, and puts forth many offshoots of harm, from which the evil spreads far and goes forward, until it is halted by the power of the one who heals. So he who shows forth the science of healing in the Spirit ought first to examine the disposition of the sinner, and to observe whether he inclines towards health, or, on the contrary, by his own ways calls the sickness down upon himself, and how he takes thought for his conduct in the meantime; and whether he is not wrestling against the practitioner, and increasing the wound of the soul by the application of the remedies laid on it; and so to measure out mercy according to desert. For the whole concern of God and of him who has been entrusted with the pastoral leadership is to bring back the straying sheep and to heal the one wounded by the serpent, and neither to push it down the precipices of despair, nor to slacken the bridle towards dissoluteness and contempt of life; but by one means or another, whether through the more austere and astringent remedies or through the gentler and milder, to stand against the passion and to strive for the closing of the wound, as he tests the fruits of repentance and wisely directs the man who is called to the bright raiment above. We must therefore know both things, what belongs to akribeia and what belongs to custom; and, in the case of those who do not accept the utmost strictness, follow the form handed down, as the holy Basil teaches us.