Canons of the First–Second Council of Constantinople

Direct English translation

The building of monasteries, a thing so venerable and honorable and long ago wisely devised by our blessed and holy Fathers, is seen today to be practiced badly. For some, attaching the name of monastery to their own estates and possessions and professing to consecrate them to God, enroll themselves as owners of the things dedicated and have contrived to discharge the divine obligation by the name alone. Even after the dedication they are not ashamed to appropriate the same authority that they were not prevented from having before it; and so much trafficking has attached itself to the matter that many of the dedicated things are seen to be sold by those very persons who dedicated them, causing both amazement and hatred in those who see it. Not only do they feel no repentance for allowing themselves authority over things once offered to God, but they also fearlessly transmit that authority to others. For these reasons the holy Synod has determined that no one is permitted to build a monastery without the knowledge and judgment of the bishop. With his knowledge and permission, and after he performs the prayer that is due, as was piously legislated of old, the monastery may be built; but everything belonging to it, together with the monastery itself, is to be entered in a register and deposited in the episcopal archives. The person making the dedication has no permission, contrary to the bishop's judgment, to establish himself as abbot or to appoint another in his place. For if a person can no longer be owner of things that he has given to another human being, how can one who consecrates and offers things to God be permitted to seize their ownership?

Direct English translation

Since some pretend to put on the solitary life, not in order to serve God purely but in order, through the dignity of the habit, to gain a reputation for piety and thereby find abundant enjoyment of their own pleasures—merely cutting off their hair and then remaining at home, fulfilling none of the order or condition of monks—the holy Synod has determined that no one at all is to be deemed worthy of the monastic habit without the presence of the person who is to receive him into obedience, assume governance over him, and undertake care for the salvation of his soul; that person must plainly be a God-loving man, presiding over a monastery and capable of saving a soul newly offered to God. If anyone is found tonsuring someone without the presence of the abbot who is to receive him into obedience, let the tonsurer be subjected to deposition as one who disobeys the canons and dissolves monastic good order; and let the person irrationally and disorderly tonsured be delivered into obedience in whatever monastery the local bishop approves. For unexamined and dangerous tonsures have dishonored the monastic habit and caused the name of Christ to be blasphemed.

Direct English translation

This evil practice also, made far worse because it is passed over through neglect and carelessness, has been judged to require correction. If therefore the superior of a monastery does not with great diligence search for monks under him who run away, or, when he finds them, does not receive them back and strive by treatment appropriate and proportionate to the fault to restore and strengthen what has become diseased, the holy Synod has determined that he is to be subject to excommunication. For if one entrusted with the care of irrational animals who neglects the flock is not left unpunished, how shall the man entrusted with pastoral authority over Christ's sheep, who through ease and negligence barters away their salvation, not pay the penalty for his audacity?

Direct English translation

In many ways the evil one has struggled to make the venerable monastic habit an object of reproach, and found much assistance toward this in the heresy that previously dominated the times. For under the necessity created by the heresy, monks left their own monasteries, some going to others and others to the lodgings of secular men. But what then, when done for piety, made them blessed, after falling into an irrational custom now makes them ridiculous. For now that piety has spread everywhere and the Church is freed from scandals, some still leave their own monasteries and, like an uncontrollable stream poured and flowing here and there, fill monasteries with disorder, bring much irregularity upon themselves, and break down and violate the dignity of obedience. The holy Synod, cutting off their unstable and unsubmissive impulse, has determined that if any monk runs away from his own monastery and falls into another monastery or lodges in a secular dwelling, both he and the one who receives him are to be excommunicated until the fugitive returns to the monastery from which he wrongly departed. If, however, the bishop wishes to transfer certain monks attested for piety and dignity of life to another monastery for the ordering of that monastery, or judges it good to establish them in a secular house for the salvation of its inhabitants, or is pleased to appoint them elsewhere, this renders neither those receiving them nor the monks liable.

Direct English translation

We find that unexamined and untested renunciations greatly injure monastic good order. For some rashly cast themselves into the solitary life and, treating lightly the roughness and labor of asceticism, miserably return again to a flesh-loving and pleasure-seeking life. For this reason the holy Synod has determined that no one is to be deemed worthy of the monastic habit before a period of three years, allowed to them as a trial, has shown them tested and worthy of so great a manner of life. It has commanded that this be maintained in every way, unless perhaps a serious illness that comes upon a person compels the period of testing to be shortened, or unless someone is a pious man who already lives the monastic life while still in secular clothing; for in the case of such a man even six months will suffice for a complete trial. If anyone acts contrary to these things, let the abbot, falling from the abbacy, undergo as correction for his disorder a life in obedience, while the one made a monk is to be delivered to another monastery that observes monastic exactness.

Direct English translation

Monks ought to possess nothing as their own, but all their things are to be assigned to the monastery. For blessed Luke says concerning those who believed in Christ and prefigured the manner of life of monks that no one said any of the things belonging to him was his own, but all things were common to them. Therefore those who wish to become monks are permitted beforehand to dispose of their possessions and transmit their property to whatever persons they wish, provided of course that those persons are not prohibited by law from receiving it. But after becoming a monk, the monastery has ownership of all things belonging to them, and they are permitted neither to concern themselves with nor dispose of their former property. If anyone is found appropriating some possession not assigned to the monastery and enslaved to the passion of possession, let it be taken by the abbot or bishop and, being sold in the presence of many, distributed to the poor and needy. The holy Synod has determined that the one who attempts secretly to withhold such property, like Ananias of old, is to be corrected by the fitting penance. It is plain that whatever the holy Synod has canonically determined concerning men who become monks it has judged to apply likewise to women who become nuns.

Direct English translation

We see many bishoprics collapsing and in danger of being handed over to complete disappearance because those who preside over them expend their care and attention on founding new monasteries, diverting the resources of the bishoprics and contriving to appropriate their revenues in order to increase those monasteries. For this reason the holy Synod has determined that no bishop is permitted to found a monastery of his own to the ruin of his own bishopric. If anyone is found daring this, let him be subjected to the fitting penance; and let what he founded, since it did not from the beginning rightly receive the status of a monastery, be assigned to the bishopric as its own property. For nothing brought into existence unlawfully and disorderly can carry the preference of things constituted canonically.

Direct English translation

The divine and sacred canon of the holy Apostles judges those who castrate themselves to be self-murderers and, if they are priests, deposes them, while if they are not priests it bars them from advancement to the priesthood. From this it makes clear that, if the one who castrates himself is a self-murderer, the one who castrates another is certainly a murderer; and one could rightly regard such a person also as an insulter of creation itself. Therefore the holy Synod has determined that if any bishop, presbyter, or deacon is proved to have made someone a eunuch, whether with his own hand or by command, he is to be subjected to deposition; and if he is a layman, to excommunication—unless perhaps an illness that has occurred compels the diseased part to be cut away. For just as the first canon of the Synod at Nicaea does not punish those operated on because of disease, so neither do we condemn priests who order the sick to be castrated nor laymen who personally make use of excision as a medical necessity. For we regard this as treatment of illness, not an attack upon the creature or an insult to creation.

Direct English translation

Since the apostolic and divine canon subjects to deposition priests who attempt to strike faithful persons who have sinned or unbelievers who have done wrong, some, contriving to gratify their own anger and falsifying the apostolic ordinances, have understood it to refer only to those who strike with their own hands, although neither the canon indicates anything of the sort nor does right reason permit such an understanding. For it would truly be vain and exceedingly dangerous to depose the one who with his own hand strikes three or four blows, while, permission being given to strike by command, leaving unpunished the one who cruelly extends the punishment even to death. Therefore, since the canon punishes striking simply, we too vote in agreement with it in this sense. For the priest of God ought to discipline the disorderly person by teachings and admonitions, and at times by ecclesiastical penances, but not to assault human bodies with whips and blows. If some are completely unsubmissive and do not yield to correction by penances, no one prevents their being disciplined by an accusation made to the local rulers. For the fifth canon of the Synod at Antioch likewise canonically directed that those who cause disturbances and introduce factions into the Church be corrected through the external authority.

Direct English translation

Those who have surrendered themselves to their passions not only fail to fear the punishment imposed by the sacred canons, but have even dared to mock the canons themselves. For they twist them and falsify them in accordance with their passionate will, so that, through the ambition of passion, according to Gregory the Theologian, the evil may be regarded by them not only as blameless but even as divine. Taking the Apostolic canon which says, 'Let no one any longer appropriate for his own use a consecrated vessel of gold or silver, or a cloth, for it is unlawful; and if anyone is detected doing so, let him be punished with excommunication,' as an advocate for their own lawless deeds, they say that those who transform the venerable covering of the holy table into a garment for themselves or into some other clothing ought not to be judged worthy of deposition; and likewise not even those who expend or misuse for their own purposes the holy chalice—O the impiety!—or the venerable diskos or similar things, because, they say, the canon judged those who fall into this to be subjected to excommunication but not deposition. Yet who could endure the magnitude of such falsification and impiety? For while the canon imposes excommunication on those who merely appropriate a consecrated object for use, but not for complete theft, they free from deposition even those who seize and sacrilegiously steal the Holy of Holies, and, according to their own judgment, introduce as not liable to deposition those who defile the venerable diskoi or holy chalices by using them for serving food. Although the pollution is manifest, it is clear that those who do such things fall not only under deposition but under the charge of the greatest impiety. Therefore the holy Synod has determined that those who seize the holy chalice, or the diskos, or the spoon, or the venerable covering, or the so-called aer, or simply any one of the sacred and holy vessels or vestments in the sanctuary for private gain, or misuse it for profane use, are to be subjected to complete deposition. For one thing is to profane, and another to rob holy things. Those, however, who give to themselves or to others for profane use any dedicated vessels or vestments outside the sanctuary are excommunicated by the canon, and we excommunicate them together with it; but those who seize them completely we subject to the condemnation of sacrilegious thieves.

Direct English translation

The divine and sacred canons subject to deposition presbyters or deacons who undertake secular offices or responsibilities, or the so-called curatorships in the houses of rulers. Confirming this, we also determine concerning the rest of those enrolled in the clergy that, if any of them exercises secular offices or undertakes the so-called curatorships in the houses or estates of rulers, he is to be expelled from his own clergy; for no one can, according to the literal and most truthful voice of Christ our true God, serve two masters.

Direct English translation

Since the holy and ecumenical Sixth Synod subjects to deposition clerics who celebrate the Liturgy or baptize in oratories situated inside houses contrary to the judgment of the bishop, we also vote in agreement with it. For since the holy Church rightly divides and represents the word of truth and preserves and teaches the dignity of conduct, it is discordant and impious to permit those living with lack of discipline and absence of authority to slip into houses, break down her good order, and fill them with much disturbance and scandal. Therefore the present sacred and divinely assisted Synod, agreeing with the holy and ecumenical Sixth Synod, has determined that those who celebrate in oratories situated within houses are to be clerics specifically assigned thereto, that assignment plainly being granted to them by the local bishop. But if some others besides these, without the bishop's approval, enter houses and dare to undertake the Liturgy, let them be deposed; and let those who share in their communion be subjected to excommunication.

Direct English translation

The all-wicked one, having sown the tares of heresy in the Church of Christ and seeing them cut up from the roots by the sword of the Spirit, has come by another road of contrivance, attempting through the madness of schismatics to divide the body of Christ. But the holy Synod, completely restraining this plot also, has determined henceforth that if any presbyter or deacon, on the pretext that he has condemned his own bishop for certain accusations, dares before a synodal judgment and examination and the bishop's complete condemnation to withdraw from communion with him and, contrary to what has been handed down to the Church, does not mention his name in the sacred prayers of the Liturgies, such a person is to be subject to deposition and deprived of every priestly honor. For one who is ranked as a presbyter and seizes the judgment of the metropolitans and, before judgment, condemns on his own authority, so far as it lies with him, his own father and bishop is worthy neither of the honor nor of the name of presbyter. Those who follow him, if any are among the ordained, are likewise to fall from their own honor; but if they are monks or laypeople, let them be completely excommunicated from the Church until, having repudiated their association with the schismatics, they return to their own bishop.

Direct English translation

If any bishop, making an accusation against his own metropolitan a pretext, separates himself from communion with him before a synodal judgment and does not mention his name, according to custom, in the divine Mystagogy, the holy Synod has determined that he is to be deposed if, merely by separating from his own metropolitan, he creates a schism. For each person must know his own limits: neither is the presbyter to despise his own bishop, nor the bishop his own metropolitan.

Direct English translation

What has been determined concerning presbyters, bishops, and metropolitans applies much more also to patriarchs. Therefore, if any presbyter, bishop, or metropolitan should dare to withdraw from communion with his own patriarch and does not mention his name, according to what has been determined and ordered, in the divine Mystagogy, but creates a schism before a manifest synodal and complete condemnation of him, the holy Synod has determined that such a person is to be entirely alien from every priestly ministry, provided only that he is proved to have committed this lawlessness. These things have been determined and sealed concerning those who, on the pretext of certain accusations, withdraw from their own presidents, create a schism, and tear apart the unity of the Church. But those who separate themselves from communion with their president on account of some heresy condemned by holy Synods or Fathers, when he is publicly preaching the heresy and teaching it openly in the Church, such persons not only are not subject to the canonical penalty for walling themselves off from communion with the one called bishop before a synodal judgment, but they shall also be deemed worthy of the honor befitting the Orthodox. For they have condemned not bishops, but false bishops and false teachers; and they have not cut the unity of the Church by schism, but have been diligent to rescue the Church from schisms and divisions.

Direct English translation

Because of the contentions and disturbances that occur in the Church of God, it is necessary to determine this also: under no circumstances is a bishop to be appointed in a church while the one presiding over it is still alive and remains in his own honor, unless he himself voluntarily resigns the bishopric. For first the cause on account of which he is to be driven from the bishopric must be brought to completion through canonical examination; and then, after his deposition, another is thus to be advanced in his place to the bishopric. But if any bishop, while remaining in his own honor, neither wishes to resign nor is willing to shepherd his own people, but, having withdrawn from his own bishopric, spends more than six months in another place, while neither being detained by an imperial command, nor serving in the ministries of his own patriarch, nor being afflicted by a severe illness producing complete immobility, then such a person, being hindered by none of the stated causes yet withdrawing from his own bishopric and remaining in another place beyond the six-month period, is to be entirely alienated from the honor and dignity of bishop. For the holy Synod has determined that the one who neglects the flock entrusted to him and spends more than six months in another place is to be made entirely alien from the high-priesthood through which he was appointed to shepherd, and another is to be appointed in his place to his episcopal see.

Direct English translation

Taking care in all things for ecclesiastical good order, we have deemed it necessary to determine this also: henceforth no layman or monk is to be raised all at once to the height of the episcopate, but, having first been tested in the ecclesiastical degrees, he is then to receive ordination to the episcopate. For although until now some from among laypeople or monks, when necessity required it, have immediately been deemed worthy of episcopal honor, have shone in virtue, and have exalted the churches under them, yet, nowhere making what is rare into a law of the Church, we determine that henceforth this is no longer to occur unless the person being ordained proceeds in proper order through the priestly degrees, completing in each rank the period established by custom.