Begin Here · Lesson 5 of 12

What does Canon 15 say?

In plain language

Canons 13 and 14 of the First and Second Council forbid clergy to break with their bishop or metropolitan over personal grievances, alleged crimes, or anything short of doctrine, before a synod rules, such separation is punished as schism. Canon 15 extends the same rule up to the patriarch, and then carves the one exception this whole course studies.

The exception says: those who separate from their “president” because of a heresy condemned by the Synods or Fathers, which he preaches publicly and bareheaded in the Church, are, even before synodical judgment, not only free of penalty but “worthy of the honour due to the Orthodox”; for they have condemned not a bishop but a pseudo bishop, and have not torn the Church with schism but laboured to free her from it. Every phrase is examined on the Canon 15 research page; the two rival readings of its force are set out there as well.

Key terms

πρόεδρος, the “president”, one's own bishop, metropolitan, or patriarch.
ψευδεπίσκοπος, pseudo bishop, the canon's own word for the hierarch in this condition.

Primary sources

Canon 15 of the First and Second Council (861), read with canons 13 to 14; the Pedalion's commentary; Rhalles and Potles for the full text.

A historical example

The council legislated with living memory of Iconoclasm, when ceasing commemoration of heretical bishops had been the confessors' recourse, the canon both restrains the abuse of that recourse and protects its lawful use.

A common misunderstanding

“Canon 15 lets me leave my bishop whenever I judge him unworthy.” It says nearly the opposite: for every cause except publicly preached, already condemned heresy, separation before trial is punished. The exception is narrow, and its narrowness is its strength.