ARTICLE V.

A Protestant Episcopal Church in any of the United States, or any Territory thereof, not now represented, may, at any time hereafter, be admitted on acceding to this Constitution; and a new diocese to be formed from one or more existing dioceses, may be admitted under the following restrictions.

No new diocese shall be formed or erected within the limits of any other diocese, nor shall any diocese be formed by the junction of two or more dioceses, or parts of dioceses, unless with the consent of the bishop and convention of each of the dioceses concerned, as well as of the General Convention.

No such new diocese shall be formed, which shall contain less than eight thousand square miles in one body, and thirty presbyters, who have been for at least one year canonically resident within the bounds of such new diocese, regularly settled in a parish or congregation, and qualified to vote for a bishop. Nor shall such new diocese be formed, if thereby any existing diocese shall be so reduced as to contain less than eight thousand square miles, or less than thirty presbyters, who have been residing therein, and settled and qualified as above mentioned.

In case one diocese shall be divided into two dioceses, the diocesan of the diocese divided may elect the one to which he will be attached, and shall thereupon become the diocesan thereof. And the assistant bishop, if there be one, may elect the one to which he will be attached; and if it be not the one elected by the bishop, he shall be the diocesan thereof.

Whenever the division of the diocese into two dioceses shall be ratified by the General Convention, each of the two dioceses shall be subject to the constitution and canons of the diocese so divided, except as local circumstances may prevent, until the same may be altered in either diocese by the convention thereof. And whenever a diocese shall be formed out of two or more existing dioceses, the new diocese shall be subject to the constitution and canons of that one of the said existing dioceses, to which the greater number of clergymen shall have belonged prior to the erection of such new diocese, until the same may be altered by the convention of the new diocese.

ARTICLE VI.

The mode of trying bishops shall be provided by the General Convention. The court appointed for that purpose, shall be composed of bishops only. In every diocese, the mode of trying presbyters and deacons may be instituted by the convention of

the diocese. None but a bishop shall pronounce sentence of ad monition, suspension, or degradation from the ministry, on any clergyman, whether bishop, presbyter, or deacon.

ARTICLE VII.

No person shall be admitted to holy orders, until he shall have been examined by the bishop, and by two presbyters, and shall have exhibited such testimonials and other requisites as the canons, in that case provided, may direct. Nor shall any person be ordained until he shall have subscribed the following declaration :

"I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation; and I do solemnly engage to conform to the doctrines and worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States."

No person ordained by a foreign bishop shall be permitted to officiate as a minister of this church, until he shall have complied with the canon or canons in that case provided, and have also subscribed the aforesaid declaration.

ARTICLE VIII.

A book of Common Prayer, administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the church, articles of religion, and a form and manner of making, ordaining and consecrating bishops, priests and deacons, when established by this or a future General Convention, shall be used in the Protestant Episcopal Church in those dioceses which shall have adopted this Constitution. No alteration or addition shall be made in the Book of Common Prayer, or other offices of the church, or the Articles of Religion, unless the same shall be proposed in one General Convention, and by a resolve thereof made known to the convention of every diocese, and adopted at the subsequent General Convention.

ARTICLE IX.

This Constitution shall be unalterable, unless in General Convention, by the church, in a majority of the dioceses which may have adopted the same; and all alterations shall be first proposed in one General Convention, and made known to the several diocesan conventions, before they shall be finally agreed to, or ratified in the ensuing General Convention.

Done in the General Convention of the bishops, clergy, and brity of the church, the 2d day of October, 1789.

NOTE. When the Constitution was originally adopted, in August, 1789, the first article provided that the Triennial Convention should be held on the first Tuesday in August. At the adjourned meeting of the convention, held in October of the same year, it was provided that the second Tuesday in September, in every third year, should be the time of meeting. The time was again chang. ed to the third Tuesday in May, by the General Convention of 1804.-See Bioren's edition of the journals of the General Convention, 1817, pp. 61, 75, and 216.

The first article was put into its present form at the General Convention of 1841.

The third article was so altered by the General Convention of 1808, as to give the House of Bishops a full veto upon the pro ceedings of the other house.-See journals of the General Convention, pp. 248, 249.

The second sentence of the eighth article was adopted at the General Convention of 1811.-See journals of General Convention, p. 274.

The words," or the Articles of Religion," were added to the eighth article by the General Convention of 1829.

The fifth article was put into its present form at the General Convention of 1838.

The same convention adopted the following alterations.-See journal of General Convention of 1838, p. 24.

Strike out the word " States" wherever it occurs in the first and second articles, except where it follows the word " United,” in the first part of the first article, and insert in lieu of the word "States," the word "Dioceses." Strike out the word "State," wherever it occurs in the second, third, and fourth articles, and insert in lieu thereof the word "diocese."

Strike out the words "or district," in the fourth article.

Strike out the word "state," in the sixth article, and insert the word" diocese."

Strike out the word "states," in the eighth article, and insert the word "dioceses ;" and in the eighth article strike out the words, "or states," after the words, "every diocese."

Strike out the word "states," in the ninth article, and insert the word "dioceses." Strike out the word "state," in the ninth article, and insert the word "Diocesan."

The sixth article was put into its present form at the General Convention of 1841.

CANON S

FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF

THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH

IN THE

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Passed in General Convention in New York, October, 1832.

CANON I. Of the Orders of Ministers in this Church.

[This Canon was adopted in 1789.]

In this Church there shall always be three orders in the Ministry, viz.; Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.

CANON II. Of the Election of Bishops.

[Repealed by the first Canon of 1835.]

CANON III. Of the Certificates to be produced on the part of the Bishop Elect.

[Former canons on this subject were the second of 1789, the fourth of 1792, and the third of 1808. ]

SECT. 1. Every bishop elect, before his consecration, shall produce to the house of bishops, from the convention by whom he is elected, evidence of such election, and from the house of clerical and lay deputies in General Convention, evidence of these approbation of his testimonials, and of their assent to his consecration, and also certificates respectively, in the following words: such certificates, in both cases, to be signed by a constitutional majority of the clerical and lay deputies, composing the state convention, or the house of clerical and lay deputies, as the case may be. The same evidence of election by, and the same certificate from the members of, the state convention, shall be pre