Canon 37 Bishops unable to reach their sees keep their rights

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.