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The Holy Canons Trullo Canon 61

Canon 61 Consulting soothsayers and practising pagan divination punished

Κανόνες τῆς ἐν Τρούλλῳ Ἁγίας καὶ Οἰκουμενικῆς Πενθέκτης Συνόδου

The Council in Trullo · Constantinople, 691 to 692 · convened by the emperor Justinian II · The Quinisext Council (Trullo, 692) on the map

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?

Οἱ μάντεσιν ἑαυτοὺς ἐκδιδόντες, ἢ τοῖς λεγομένοις ἑκατοντάρχοις, ἤ τισι τοιούτοις, ὡς ἂν παρ᾿ ἐκείνων μάθοιεν ὅ,τι ἂν αὐτοῖς ἐκκαλύπτεσθαι βούλοιντο, κατὰ τὰ πρῴην ὑπὸ τῶν Πατέρων περὶ αὐτῶν ὁρισθέντα, ὑπὸ τὸν κανόνα πιπτέτωσαν τῆς ἑξαετίας. Τῷ αὐτῷ δὲ τούτῳ ἐπιτιμίῳ καθυποβάλλεσθαι δεῖ, καὶ τοὺς ἄρκτους ἐπισυρομένους, ἢ τοιαῦτα ζῷα, πρὸς παίγνιον καὶ βλάβην τῶν ἁπλουστέρων, καὶ τύχην, καὶ εἱμαρμένην, καὶ γενεαλογίαν, καὶ τοιούτων τινῶν ῥημάτων ὄχλον, κατὰ τοὺς τῆς πλάνης λήρους φωνοῦντας, τούς τε λεγομένους νεφοδιώκτας, καὶ γητευτάς, καὶ φυλακτηρίους, καὶ μάντεις. Ἐπιμένοντας δὲ τούτοις, καὶ μὴ μετατιθεμένους, καὶ ἀποφεύγοντας τὰ ὀλέθρια ταῦτα καὶ ἑλληνικὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα, παντάπασιν ἀποῤῥίπτεσθαι τῆς ἐκκλησίας ὁρίζομεν, καθὼς καὶ οἱ ἱεροὶ κανόνες διαγορεύουσι. Τίς γὰρ κοινωνία φωτὶ πρὸς σκότος; ὥς φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, ἢ τίς συγκατάθεσις ναῷ Θεοῦ μετὰ εἰδώλων; ἢ τίς μερὶς πιστῷ μετὰ ἀπίστου; τίς δὲ συμφώνησις Χριστῷ πρὸς Βελίαρ;

The Council in Trullo, 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.