ters 16 and 17. It may be as well to add, that the 85, as published by Cotelerius in his Patres Apostolici, are reduced to 76 in number, some being added together in his edition. There is however no difference in the contents of the Canons themselves.

CANON I. Let a Bishop be ordained by two or three Bishops.

II. Let a Presbyter, Deacon, and the rest of the Clergy, be ordained by one Bishop.

III. If any Bishop or Presbyter offer any other things at the Altar, besides that which the Lord ordained for the sacrifice, as honey, or milk, or strong made drink instead of wine, or birds, or any living things, or vegetables, besides that which is ordained, let him be deposed. Excepting only new ears of corn, and grapes at the suitable season. Neither is it allowed to bring anything else to the Altar at the time of the holy oblation, excepting oil for the lamps, and incense.

IV. Let all other fruits be sent home as first-fruits for the Bishops and Presbyters, but not offered at the Altar. But the Bishops and Presbyters should of course give a share of these things to the Deacons, and the rest of the Clergy.

V. Let not a Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, put away his wife under pretence of religion; but if he put her away, let him be excommunicated; and if he persist, let him be deposed.

VI. Let not a Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, undertake worldly business; otherwise let him be deposed.

VII. If any Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, shall celebrate the holy day of Easter before the vernal equinox, with the Jews, let him be deposed.

VIII. If any Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, or any

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one on the sacerdotal list, when the offering is made, does not partake of it, let him declare the cause; and if it be a reasonable one, let him be excused; but if he does not declare it let him be excommunicated, as being a cause of offence to the people, and occasioning a suspicion against the offerer, as if he had not made the offering properly.

IX. All the faithful who come in and hear the Scriptures, but do not stay for the prayers and the holy Communion, are to be excommunicated, as causing disorder in the Church.

X. If any one shall pray, even in a private house, with an excommunicated person, let him also be excommunicated.

XI. If any of the Clergy join in prayer with a deposed Clergyman, let him also be deposed.

XII. and XIII. If any one of the Clergy or Laity who is excommunicated, or not to be received, shall go away, and be received in another city without commendatory letters, let both the receiver and the received be excommunicated. But if he be excommunicated already, let the time of his excommunication be lengthened.

XIV. A Bishop is not to be allowed to leave his own Parish, and pass over into another, although he may be pressed by many to do so, unless there be some proper cause constraining him, as if he can confer some greater benefit upon the persons of that place in the word of godliness. And this must be done not of his own accord, but by the judgment of many Bishops, and at their earnest exhortation.

XV. If any Presbyter, or Deacon, or any other of the list of the Clergy, shall leave his own Parish, and go into another, and having entirely forsaken his own, shall make his abode in the other Parish without the permis

sion of his own Bishop, we ordain, that he shall no longer perform divine service; more especially if his own Bishop having exhorted him to return, he has refused to do so, and persists in his disorderly conduct. But let him communicate there as a Layman.

XVI. If however the Bishop, with whom any such persons are staying, shall disregard the command that they are to cease from performing divine offices, and shall receive them as Clergymen, let him be excommunicated, as a teacher of disorder.

XVII. He who has been twice married after Baptism, or who has had a concubine, cannot become a Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, or any other of the Sacerdotal list.

XVIII. He who has married a widow, or a divorced woman, or an harlot, or a servant maid, or an actress, cannot be a Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, or any other of the Sacerdotal list.

XIX. He who has married two sisters, or a niece, cannot become a Clergyman.

XX. If a Clergyman becomes surety for any one, let him be deposed.

XXI. An eunuch, if he has been made so by the violence of men, or in times of persecution, or if he has been born so, if in other respects he is worthy, may be made a Bishop.

XXII. He who has mutilated himself, cannot become a Clergyman, for he is a self-murderer, and an enemy to the workmanship of God.

XXIII. If any man being a Clergyman shall mutilate himself, let him be deposed, for he is a self-murderer.

XXIV. If a Layman mutilate himself, let him be excommunicated for three years, as practising against his own life.

XXV. If a Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon be found

guilty of fornication, perjury, or theft, let him be deposed, but let him not be excommunicated; for the Scripture says, “thou shalt not punish a man twice for the same offence." (Nahum i. 9. LXX version.) In like man

ner with respect to the other Clergy.

XXVI. Of those who have been admitted to the Clergy unmarried, we ordain, that the Readers and Singers only may, if they will, marry.

XXVII. If a Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon shall strike any of the faithful who have sinned, or of the unbelievers who have done wrong, with the intention of frightening them, we command that he be deposed. For our Lord has by no means taught us to do so, but, on the contrary, when He was smitten He smote not again, when He was reviled He reviled not again, when He suffered He threatened not.

XXVIII. If any Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, having been justly deposed upon open accusations, shall dare to meddle with any of the divine offices which had been entrusted to him, let him be altogether cut off from the Church.

XXIX. If any Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, shall obtain possession of that dignity by money, let both him and the person who ordained him be deposed, and also altogether cut off from all communion, as Simon Magus was by me Peter.

XXX. If any Bishop obtain possession of a Church by the aid of the temporal powers, let him be deposed and excommunicated, and all who communicate with him.

XXXI. If any Presbyter, despising his own Bishop, shall collect a separate congregation, and erect another Altar, not having any grounds for condemning the Bishop with regard to religion or justice, let him be deposed for his ambition; for he is a tyrant: in like manner also the

rest of the Clergy, and as many as join him: and le Laymen be excommunicated. Let this, however, be done after a first, second, and third admonition from the Bishop.

XXXII. If any Presbyter or Deacon has been excommunicated by a Bishop, he may not be received into communion again by any other than by him who excommunicated him, unless it happen that the Bishop who excommunicated him be dead.

XXXIII. No foreign Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, may be received without commendatory letters; and when they are produced let the persons be examined; and if they be preachers of godliness, let them be received. Otherwise, although you supply them with what they need, you must not receive them into communion, for many things are done surreptitiously.

XXXIV. The Bishops of every nation must acknowledge him who is first among them, and account him as their head, and do nothing of consequence without his consent; but each may do those things only which concern his own Parish, and the country places which belong to it. But neither let him [who is the first] do anything without the consent of all; for so there will be unanimity, and God will be glorified through the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Father through the Lord by the Holy Spirit, even the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

XXXV. Let not a bishop dare to ordain beyond his own limits, in cities and places not subject to him. But if he be convicted of doing so, without the consent of those persons who have authority over such cities and places, let him be deposed, and those also whom he has ordained.

XXXVI. If any person, having been ordained Bishop,