What canons exist in the Church? What do they regulate? Are the canons needed to deprive a person of freedom, or, conversely, to help him? Why is there such a legal formalism in the Church at all? Is it really impossible to be saved without him?
These and other questions especially for "Thomas" were answered by Archpriest Dmitry Pashkov, lecturer at the Department of General and Russian Church History and Canon Law at PSTGU.
What are church canons and why are they needed?
The word "canon" is of Greek origin, and it is translated as "rule", "norm". The canons are generally binding rules of conduct adopted in the Church. Therefore, we can say that the canon in the Church in its content and meaning is the same as the law in the state.The need for church canons is generally understandable. When we find ourselves in any society, we must comply with certain accepted rules of conduct. So it is in the Church. Having become a member of it, a person must obey the norms acting within its limits - the canons.
You can use the following analogy. When we improve our health in a hospital, we are faced with certain rules that, whether we like it or not, must obey. And these hospital rules may seem redundant or even absurd at first, until we try to understand them.
At the same time, there can be no canonical formalism in the Church. Each person is individual, and therefore a confessor plays a significant role in his church life. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the person who comes to him, the priest, relying on the canonical norm, can act quite freely. After all, one must not forget that the main body of canons was formed a very long time ago, back in the first millennium, and many canons cannot be literally applied at the present time. Therefore, the priest has a lot of room for "maneuver" (the canons themselves assume this, leaving the priest, for example, the right to shorten or, on the contrary, extend penances), and this is very important when it comes to such a complex and extremely delicate matter as shepherding.
But is it really impossible to be saved without this formalism?
No, the point here is not in the formalism itself, but in ourselves. Since even after baptism we remain imperfect, lazy, egocentric beings, we need to be led to some kind of godly life that corresponds to our faith.Of course, our communication with God is not subject to normative regulation, for example, how a person prays at home: for a long time, for a short time, with or without a lamp, looking at an icon or closing his eyes, lying or standing - this is his own business and depends solely on how he can pray better. But if a Christian comes to the assembly of believers, to the Church, where there are already many like him and everyone has their own views, interests, some preferences, here already without certain rules, which all this diversity will lead to some kind of correct uniformity. , not enough.
That is, generally binding norms, canons, are needed where a society appears, where it is already required to prescribe certain rights and obligations to its members in order to avoid chaos and disorder in it.
In addition, the canons serve to maintain the original image of the Church that arose on the day of Pentecost, so that it remains unchanged in any state, culture, social formation. The Church is always and at all times the same: in the 1st century, and in the era of the Ecumenical Councils, and in late Byzantium, and in the Moscow kingdom, and now. And the canons preserve this identity of the Church with itself through all ages.
Did Christ say anything about the need to follow some rules in the Gospel?
Of course he did. The Lord sets some norms of the Christian life right in the Gospel. For example, there are canons that govern the sacrament of Baptism. And in the Gospel, Christ was the first to establish this standard: So go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age. Amen ”(Matt 28: 19–20).Here we find the baptismal formula - "in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" - which is pronounced today by the priest during the performance of the sacrament. In addition, it is said that you must first teach, and only then baptize. And from here, for example, begins the practice of so-called catechumens before baptism, when a priest or catechist must explain in detail to a person who wants to enter the Church the fundamentals of Christian faith and piety.
In addition, the Lord Jesus Christ established monogamy as the norm (Matt 19: 4-9). It was on the basis of His words that the Church developed its teaching on the sacrament of Marriage. However, she somewhat softened the "severity" of the Gospel, where, as is known, it is said: whoever divorces his wife not for adultery and marries another commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery (Matt 19: 9). The Church, condescending to human weakness and realizing that not everyone can bear the burden of loneliness, allows, under certain circumstances, to enter into a second or even a third marriage.
However, there are other canons that are not taken directly from the New Testament. The Church, led by the Holy Spirit, acts as a continuer of the Lawgiver Christ, expanding, specifying and renewing its legal norms. At the same time, I repeat, this very detailing and, in general, the entire legislative activity of the Church is based on the principles given by the Savior in the Gospel.
What canons exist? And what do they regulate?
There are a lot of church canons. They can be divided into several large groups. There are, for example, canons that regulate the administrative order of the management of the Church. There are "disciplinary" canons that govern the lives of believers and the ministry of clergy.There are canons of a dogmatic nature that condemn certain heresies. There are canons that streamline the territorial administration of the Church. These canons establish the powers of the highest bishops - metropolitans, patriarchs, they determine the regularity of the Councils, and so on.
All canons in all their diversity were formulated in the first millennium of church history, and some of them are somewhat outdated. But the Church still honors these ancient canons and studies very carefully, because the unique epoch of the Ecumenical Councils is a kind of standard, a model for all subsequent centuries.
Today, from these ancient norms, we extract, if not direct rules of conduct, then at least their spirit, principles, in order to establish in a renewed form such norms that will meet the needs of today.
It is clear that if a citizen breaks the law, then he will be punished for this by a court decision. What about the Church? Does it provide for punishment for violation of one or another church canon?
If we talk about church law regulating the pious life of a Christian, canonical sanctions first of all deprive the guilty person of the most important thing - communion with Christ in the sacrament of the Sacrament. This is not a measure of retribution, not a punishment in the conventional sense of the word, but a "therapeutic" measure aimed at curing one or another spiritual ailment. However, here too there is a very important and essential reservation: the final decision regarding the application of this or that church punishment is made by the confessor or, if we take a higher level, the bishop. In this case, each case is considered separately, and depending on the specific situation, one or another decision is made.Thus, church canons are more like medicines than laws. The law operates largely formally, the legislative and executive branches must be independent.
In this sense, the enforcer (bishop or priest) should act in the same way as a good and considerate doctor does. After all, the doctor will not torment his patient with new drugs if the prescribed drugs have already had a beneficial effect! But if the treatment does not bring positive results, then the doctor begins to use other drugs until the patient recovers. And if in medicine the indicator of the success of treatment is the patient's recovery, then for the bishop and confessor such a testimony will be the believer's sincere repentance.
This, in fact, is what the church sanctions are for: to set a person up for repentance and correction, in order to help him in spiritual growth, so that a believer who has fallen under penance will experience an internal upheaval and repent. So that he realizes that the sin he has committed deprives him of communion with God and tries to restore it again.
Are church canons fixed somewhere? Are there any collections in which they are classified and presented?
Of course. The Church began to codify her right already at the end of the 4th century. It was in this era, after the end of the persecution of Christians, a huge number of canons appeared, which needed to somehow be systematized and streamlined. This is how the first canonical collections appeared. Some of them were organized chronologically, others - thematically, according to the subjects of legal regulation. In the 6th century, original collections of mixed content appeared, the so-called "nomokanons" (from the Greek words "nomos" - imperial law, "canon" - church rule). It included both the canons adopted by the Church and the laws of the emperors concerning the Church.There are also so-called apostolic rules. They have no direct relation to the disciples of Christ themselves, and most likely they received such a name because of their special significance and authority. These canons arose on the territory of Syria in the IV century.
The most famous collection of ancient canons is called the "Book of Rules". It included the "apostolic" canons, and the canons adopted at the Ecumenical Councils, and the canons of some Local Councils, and the authoritative opinions of the holy fathers on various problems of church life.
Does a layman need to know the norms of church law?
I believe it is necessary. Knowledge of the canons helps to understand what rights and responsibilities he has. In addition, church canons are also very useful in everyday life.For example, the life of a newborn baby hangs in the balance and urgently needs to be baptized. Can the mother herself do this in the maternity hospital, and if she can (and in fact it is), how can she do it correctly, so that the sacrament of Baptism really takes place? Or you've been invited to become a godfather. What does this mean from a canonical point of view, what responsibilities do you have? There are many difficult questions associated with the sacrament of Marriage. For example, is it possible from a canonical point of view to marry a heterodox or a heterodox?
What, then, is it worth reading to a layman? Where can he learn about his rights and responsibilities in the Church?
In recent years, Archpriest Vladislav Tsypin's excellent course of lectures on canon law has been reprinted several times. If we talk about acquaintance with the sources, you should start by studying the above-mentioned "Book of rules". Modern normative acts of our Local Church (for example, its Charter and various particular provisions) are published on its official website patriarchia.ru, and five years ago the Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchate began to publish a multivolume collection of documents of the Russian Orthodox Church.Article from the encyclopedia "Tree": site
Canon(Greek κανών, literally - a straight pole - any measure that determines the forward direction: spirit level, ruler, square).
In ancient Greece, composers, grammars, philosophers, physicians used this word for a set of basic provisions or rules in their specialty that were axiomatic or dogmatic in nature (what later, in the era of scholasticism, was called summa, for example, summa philosophiae). For the ancient Greek lawyers, κανών meant the same as for the Roman lawyers regula juris - a short position, a thesis extracted from the current law and representing a scheme for solving one or another particular legal issue.
In our time, the word canon has several meanings.
- Church rule or set of rules (see below).
- The Sacred or Biblical Canon is the composition of those sacred books of the Old ("Old Testament Canon") and New ("New Testament Canon") Testaments, which are recognized by the church as inspired by God and serve as the primary sources and norms of faith.
- A list or catalog of clergy and clergymen of a known diocese, compiled for the needs of the diocesan administration. The persons included in this list were called canons.
- For one of the genres of church hymnography, see Canon (chant).
During Christianity, the name " canon"first of all, even in the era of the apostles (Galatians VI, 16; Philip. III, 16), it was adopted by those church rules that originated from Jesus Christ Himself and the apostles, or were established by the Church later, or, finally, were established although and the state, but in relation to the ecclesiastical competence based on divine commandments. The last in the legal Greco-Roman literature to learn the name of the law - νόμος, common with all laws of the state.
According to the Byzantine canonists (Valsamon, Vlastar, etc.), as well as some of the latest scholars, canons have greater power than laws, since the epistle was published only by the Greco-Roman emperors, and the canons - by the holy fathers of the church, with the approval of the emperors, as a result of which the canons have the authority of both powers - church and state.
In a broad sense canons all the decrees of the church are named, both related to the doctrine, and concerning the structure of the church, its institutions, discipline and religious life of the church society, and sometimes the creations of individual church fathers (for example, Κανών έκκλησιαστικός of Clement of Alexandria).
After the church began to expound its doctrine in church-wide symbols, the word canon received a more special meaning - the decree of the ecumenical council, relating to the structure of the church, its management, institutions, discipline and life. In this sense, the word canon is finally legitimized by the 1 and 2 rules of the Trull Cathedral. Therefore, in the collections of church canons, although there are symbols and dogmas, only to the extent that they are included in the definitions of councils.
Then they usually distinguish general canons(καθολικοί, γενικοι κανόνες) and private or local(τοπικοί, ίδικοί κανόνες), and some canonists, in addition, - personal canons(προςοπικοί). Most scholars, with Balsamon at the head, do not recognize as canons for the canons of decrees concerning individuals by virtue of the principle "jura non in singulas personas, sed generaliter constituntur".
The codification of the state laws of the Greco-Roman Empire under Justinian caused similar work on the part of the Church in relation to both her own canons and in relation to state laws on church issues. This is where the so-called nomocanons originated. Currently, the code of the church canons in force in the Greek church is Pidalion (πηδάλιον - steering wheel on a ship), compiled in Greek. scientists in 1793-1800 based mainly on the syntagma patr. Photius. Attached to the text of the canons:
- interpretations of Zonara, Aristinus (who in the 12th century compiled "an interpretation of the synopsis of K.") and Balsamon;
- rules of John the Faster, Nicephorus and Nicholas Patr. Constantinople and
- several articles related to the field of marriage law and the formalities of church office work.
The same meaning is also
When a parishioner of the church has a question, he turns to the parish priest with it. But there are times when a conciliar decision is required to answer it. We talk with the chairman of the canonical disciplinary commission, Archpriest Alexander Pislar, about the canons by which the Church lives, about the solution of complex issues related to remarriage and funeral services.
- Father Alexander, if the activities of the other departments of the diocesan administration are clear from the name, then the range of issues that the canonical disciplinary commission decides is not always clear even to church people. Please tell us about it.
- Since ancient apostolic times, the Church has always been guided by the canons in organizing her inner life and in relations with the outside world. In secular terms, the canon is the law. These laws have been developed since ancient times, the main body of the canonical rules of the Orthodox Church was established by the end of the 9th century. The canons regulate all the diversity of the internal and external life of the Church.
More specifically, the canonical commission, which exists in all dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, deals with those canonical issues that cannot be resolved at the parish level. They include two broad categories of questions. The first category concerns the blessing of remarriages, the second category - the funeral service for those people who voluntarily ended their life.
Every parish priest, when faced with similar questions, having listened to the request of people who have addressed to him, for example, to marry their second or third marriage, must tell them that he cannot resolve such a question and must contact the canonical commission and explain where it is.
After that, the applicants can come to the commission on the visiting day. At this time, the priest on duty, who is a member of the canonical commission, listens to the applicants and helps them correctly write a petition addressed to the ruling Bishop. It reflects all the basic information on their problem. If it concerns the wedding, then this is the story of the first marriages: when they were contracted, when they were dissolved and for what reason, about the intention to enter into a second marriage. Having registered the petition, the priest explains to these people when they need to come to the meeting of the commission, at which it will be considered. A full meeting of the commission happens once a month, at which all petitions are considered in the presence of people who have applied to it.
- Where is the priest on duty who is a member of the canonical commission of the Intercession Diocese?
- Today, in view of the fact that our newly formed diocese is experiencing difficulties with the premises where its services could normally be located, our commission shares the premises with the Sunday school of the Holy Trinity Cathedral.
- What documents should the people who wrote the petition bring with them to the commission meeting?
- This applies mainly to the second category of applicants - those wishing to obtain permission for the funeral service for suicides. As for repeated marriages, then practically no documents are required, because the legal side of marriage in our country is dealt with by the registry office. Before the revolution, these questions were related to the conduct of spiritual consistories. For each issue of church divorce, an investigation was carried out with the involvement of the parties, with an interrogation under oath, etc. Because most of the subjects Russian Empire were of the Orthodox faith, they were all assigned to a particular parish. And therefore, if necessary, on the summons of the church court, they were simply obliged to appear. Now, for obvious reasons, the Church cannot conduct such investigations. For example, such a typical situation: a spouse is a church person, and she will come on this summons, and the husband will say: "I do not obey the church court."
- When we talk about permission to re-marry, do we mean that the first marriage was a crowned union or only fixed by civil authorities?
- This point was even explained by Vladyka in a circular letter, which were received by the rectors of all churches in our diocese. It emphasizes that not only those people who were married in their first marriage, but also those who were registered in accordance with all the rules of our legislation, are considered second marriage.
- It turns out that people who have not registered their relationship and are in a so-called civil marriage (or, more simply, in prodigal cohabitation) are in a more advantageous position. If they want to marry another person, they are like first-wives before the Church and the law.
- I agree that there is some temptation in this. Formally, indeed, such a person is considered a primordial woman. "Civil" marriage is a very serious evil that today covers not only our society, but the whole world. If a cohabiting person has even the slightest concern about his spiritual life, about his salvation, then sooner or later he will surely hear from the priest the menacing words: "You cannot start Communion until you legitimize your relationship." And excommunication from the Sacrament is equal to excommunication from the Church, and the priest must explain this to the person. Such a punishment will make him think. And if he does not ponder, it means that he is still too far from God, from faith, and the question of a wedding is still premature for him.
- As for the relatives who want to get permission for the suicide funeral service. Probably, it is very difficult to consider their appeals. It turns out that the sin was committed by a person who cannot be returned or corrected. There are grief-stricken relatives who want to help his soul in some way. They say that he was mentally ill, he was killed. On what basis is the issue of suicide funeral decided?
- You have correctly noted that the questions related to this category are especially difficult. And often the priest, who is the first to receive the relatives of a deceased person like this, is forced to simply console people, talking with them sometimes for an hour or more. A year ago, with the blessing of the Holy Synod, the "Rite of Prayer Consolation of Relatives" was drawn up. This rite, which, of course, is not a funeral service, can be performed by any parish priest.
- How is the issue of the funeral being resolved when relatives are sure that he was killed or that he took this step under the influence of a dull reason or mental illness? After all, the canonical commission is not an investigative committee, you cannot conduct a full-fledged investigation or forensic psychiatric examination.
- In the case of the death of people, in fact, there are indirect signs, details by which we can judge whether it was a violent death or an unauthorized one. In order to find out them, you just need to listen carefully to relatives. The priests, who have been carrying this obedience for several years, accumulate a certain experience.
- If someone is dissatisfied with the decision of the canonical commission, can he appeal it?
- It happens very rarely, most often for marriage affairs. Because such a terrible misfortune as the death of loved ones, especially through suicide, humbles people. In most cases, even if people were not very churchly, it brings them closer to God. And they are ready to listen to the priest and receive some consolation.
But on marriage affairs there are both comic and sad stories at the same time, when people literally almost knock their hand on the table: marry us by all means, what right do you have to refuse us? At the same time, he does not have any rights to this wedding. For example, when a husband abandons his lawful wife, with whom he has lived for 20 years, children, he brings his mistress and says: "Marry us." We explain that you are, to put it mildly, wrong. But we speak different languages. These are the people who are unhappy. But they do not complain either, because they have enough understanding that this is a general church attitude towards their case, and in the Church they will not receive any other answer. It is rather their dissatisfaction with the Church in general as such. God grant that in the future they will understand something and change their lives.
- And the questions of the Sacrament in Orthodox churches babies baptized in Catholicism, the canonical commission also decides the relationship with the heterodox?
- These issues, as a rule, are not considered by the entire commission. The priest or church staff give the phone number of one of the commission members, most often mine, and people just call and ask questions related to the application of some canon.
Interviewed by Marina Shmeleva
The holy fathers of the Fifth Ecumenical Council, who gathered in Constantinople mainly to approve the Chalcedonian Fourth Ecumenical Council, did not draw up special rules pertaining to ecclesiastical deanery, as is evident from the second rule of the sixth ecumenical council, in which, when indicating the rules of other holy councils, about the rules of the fifth ecumenical council are not mentioned.
The Sixth Ecumenical Council, which made up the 102nd canons, is also called the Fifth-Sixth or Trullian Council. It is called the fifth-sixth because it was a direct continuation of the Fifth Council, convened by Emperor Justinian II. The council began its sessions on November 7, 680, and ended in September of the following year. Since the first part of the Council dealt exclusively with dogmatic issues in connection with the heresy of the Monothelites, it was convened again on September 1, 691 to draw up rules and ended on August 31, 692. The meetings of both Councils took place in a part of the Imperial Palace, which was called Trulla. and therefore these rules are also called the rules of the Council of Trull. The Council was attended by 227 fathers and the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem were personally present. There were also representatives of Pope Agathon.
1. When starting every word and deed, the best order is to begin with God and finish with God, according to the Theologian. Therefore, even now - when piety is already clearly preached by us, and the Church, of which Christ is the foundation, is constantly growing and prospering, so that it rises above the Lebanese cedars, - laying the beginning of sacred words, we determine by God's grace: to us from samovids and ministers of the Word, God's chosen Apostles; also - from three hundred and eighteen saints and blessed father, under Constantine, our king, against the wicked Arius, and against the pagan other gods invented by him, or, more characteristic of reticence, polytheism, gathered in Nicaea, who, by the unanimity of faith, revealed to us and understood the consubstantial in three hypostases The God-original nature, not allowing this to be hidden under the cover of ignorance, but clearly teaching the faithful to worship the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in one worship, overthrew and destroyed the false teaching about the unequal degrees of the Divine, and the heretics from the sand laid down against Orthodoxy, the children's constructions ravaged and overthrown. Likewise - and under the great Theodosius, our king, one hundred and fifty holy fathers, gathered in this reigning city, the proclaimed confession of faith is contained, theology of the Holy Spirit is acceptable; and wicked Macedonia, bought with the former enemies of the truth, as one who violently dared to regard the Master as a slave and brazenly wanted to cross an insect unit, so that the mystery of our hope would not be complete. Together with this - the most vile and rampant against the truth, we condemn Apolinarius, the mastermind of malice, who vomited wickedly, as if the Lord would accept a body without soul and mind, in this way, in the same way, introducing thought, as if salvation would be done for us imperfect. Likewise, under Theodosius, the son of Arkady, our king, who gathered for the first time in the city of Ephesus, two hundred God-bearing fathers set forth the teaching, like an invincible power of piety, we seal with consent, the only Christ, the Son of God and incarnate preaching, and the seedless Mary who gave birth to Him, confessing properly and truly the Mother of God, and the insane division of Nestorius, as if he was excommunicated from the lot of God, we reject: for he teaches that Christ alone is a separate person, and a separate God, and renews Jewish wickedness. Orthodox we affirm in the same way in the regional city of Chalcedon, under Marcian, our king, by six hundred and thirty Fathers chosen by God, the inscribed confession, which by the ends of the earth proclaimed one Christ the Son of God, consisting of two natures, and in these very two natures, glorified; and the super-wise Eutychios, who said that the great mystery of saving economy was accomplished by a ghost, like something monstrous, and like an infection, from the sacred fences of the Church it vomited, with him Nestorius and Dioscoros, of whom one was the defender and champion of division, and the other was confusion, and who from opposite countries of wickedness descended into a single abyss of destruction and godlessness. And also one hundred and sixty-five God-bearing fathers, gathered in this reigning city, under Justinian, blessed in the memory of our king, pious verbs, as spoken from the Spirit, we know, and we teach our descendants. They are Theodore of Mopsuetsky, the teacher of Nestoriev, and Origen, and Didyma, and Evagrius, who renewed the Hellenic fables, and the transitions and transformations of some bodies and souls were presented to us for shame, in sleepy dreams of a wandering mind, and against the resurrection of the dead wickedly and unwisely rebelled, so written by Theodoret against the right-wing faith and against the twelve chapters of Blessed Cyril, and the so-called letter of Willow, conciliarly cursed and rejected. And recently, under our tsar, blessed memory of Constantine, in this reigning city of the descended sixth Council, the confession, which accepted the fortress, when the pious emperor approved the resolution of this Council with his seal, for the sake of reliability, for all eternity, we again undertake to preserve indestructible. It God-lovingly explained how we should confess two natural desires, or two wills, and two natural actions in incarnate, for the sake of our salvation, our only Lord Jesus Christ, the true God; and those who perverted the right dogma of truth and one will and one action in one Lord our God Jesus Christ preached to people, by the court of piety they accused, as Theodore the Bishop of Faransk, Cyrus of Alexandria, Honorius of Rome, Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul, Peter, who were in this God-saved city by the primates, Macarius Bishop of Antioch, our disciple Stephen, and insane Polychrony, thus keeping the common body of Christ our God inviolable. Briefly rekshi, we decree, that the faith of all glorified men in the Church of God, who were the luminaries in the world, containing the word of life, is observed firmly and may remain unshakable until the end of the century, together with their God-betrayed writings and dogmas. We sweep aside and anathematize everyone whom they swept aside and anathematized, as enemies of the truth, who gnashed at God in vain, and who intensified falsehood to a height. If someone of all does not contain and does not accept the above dogmas of piety, and does not think and preach that way, but attempts to go against them: let him be anathema, by definition, previously decreed by the aforementioned saints and blessed fathers, and from the Christian estate, as an alien, let him be turned off and ejected. For we, in accordance with what was previously determined, completely decided not to apply anything, not to subtract, and could not in any way.
Wed 2 Vsell. 1; 3 Vsec. 7; 7 Abs. 1; Karf. 1 and 2.
2. Wonderful and worthy of the utmost diligence, this holy Council recognized and the fact that from now on, for the healing of souls and for the healing of passions, the eighty who were accepted and approved by the saints and blessed fathers who were before us, and who were also devoted to us in the name of the holy and glorious Apostles, would remain firm and inviolable. five rules. Since, in these canons, we are commanded to accept the same holy Apostles' decrees, through Clement the devotees, in which the once different-minded, to the detriment of the Church, introduced something counterfeit and alien to piety, and darkened for us the splendid beauty of Divine teaching: then we, for the edification and protection Christian flock, these Clement's decrees were prudently postponed, by no means allowing the products of heretical false words, and without interfering with the pure and perfect Apostolic teaching. With our consent we also capture all the other sacred rules set forth from our saints and blessed fathers, that is, three hundred and eighteen God-bearing fathers gathered in Nicaea; similarly from the father, who gathered in Agvira, and in Neocaesarea, as well as in Gangra; besides this in Antioch of Syria and in Laodicea of Phrygia; another hundred and fifty fathers, who converged in this God-preserved and reigning city; and two hundred fathers, assembled for the first time in the regional city of Ephesus; and six hundred and thirty saints and blessed fathers, gathered in Chalcedon; and from those assembled at Sardica and Carthage; and the packs still gathered in this God-saved and reigning city under Nektarios, the head of this reigning city, and under Theophilus, the archbishop of Alexandria; likewise ruled by Dionysius, archbishop of the great city of Alexandria; Peter, Archbishop and Martyr of Alexandria; Gregory, Bishop of Neocaesarea, miracle worker; Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria; Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea of Cappadocia; Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa; Gregory the Theologian; Amphilochius of Iconium; the first Timothy, Archbishop of Alexandria; Theophilus, Archbishop of the same great city of Alexandria; Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria; and Gennady, the patriarch of this God-protected and reigning city; also Cyprian, the archbishop of an African country, and a martyr, and the Council under him, the former set forth the rule, which in the places of the foregoing primates, and only with them, according to the devoted custom, was preserved. Let no one be allowed to change, or cancel, or, in addition to the proposed rules, accept others, with forged inscriptions drawn up by certain people who dared to uproot the truth. If someone is convicted, as a certain rule from the above, attempted to change or stop: such one will be guilty against the rule to bear the penance that it defines, and through this he will be healed from what he stumbled upon.
2nd rule 6 Vsell. The Council is especially important because it lists the rules of Local Councils and Sts. Fathers who from that time acquire the same value with other rules of the Ecumenical Councils. These rules according to the expression 1 p. 7 Vsell. Councils serve as "testimony and guidance to all Orthodox." Of all those who issued these rules, beginning with the Holy Apostles, the canon says that they "were enlightened by the same Spirit, and legalized useful things." 6 Vse. The Council, approving all previously adopted rules, prohibits them "to change or abolish." Anyone who would attempt to pervert them will be subject to the penance specified in the rule that he would attempt to change.
3. Since our pious and Christ-loving king proposed to this holy and ecumenical council that those who are numbered in the clergy and other Divine teachers should be presented as pure and blameless servants, and worthy of mental sacrifice, the great God, who is both a sacrifice and a bishop, and to cleanse from the filth that clings to him from illegal marriages; And as on this subject, those present to the most holy Roman Church suggested observing a strict rule, and those subject to the throne of this God-preserved and reigning city, the rule of philanthropy and condescension: then we, fatherly and God-pleasingly together, mingling both into one, let us not leave any meekness weak, nor cruel severity, especially under such circumstances when the fall, through ignorance, extends to a considerable number of people, according to we determine that those who are connected with a second marriage, and even until the fifteenth day of the past month of January, the past fourth indicative, six thousand one hundred ninety-nine years, remaining in enslavement to sin, and those who did not want to be sober from it, were subject to canonical ejection from their rank. As for those who, although they fell into such a sin of second marriage, but before this definition of ours, they knew what was useful, and cut off evil from themselves, and rejected unusual and illegal copulation far away, or whose wives of the second marriage have already died, and who, moreover, they looked to conversion, again learning chastity, and soon fleeing from their former iniquities, whether it was presbyters or deacons: it was reasoned about such, let them refrain from any sacred service or action, staying under penance for a certain time, and by the honor of sitting and standing yes use, content with the chair, and weeping before the Lord, may he forgive them the sin of ignorance. For it would be incongruous to bless another to someone who must heal his own ulcers. Those who were combined with a single wife, if the widow he was wearing was, like those who, by ordination, joined a single physician, that is, presbyters, deacons and subdeacons, after being removed from the priesthood for a certain short time and after penance, to restore the packs to their own degree, with the prohibition to raise them to another higher degree, and, moreover, obviously, upon the dissolution of the wrong cohabitation. But we have decreed this for those who, as has been said, until the fifteenth day of the month of January, the fourth indict, were convicted of the above-mentioned wines, and only for sacred persons; henceforth, we define and renew the rule, which says: whoever was obliged by baptism by two marriages, or had a concubine, can be neither a bishop, nor a presbyter, nor a deacon, nor in general in the list of a sacred rite (Ap. Ex. 17). Likewise, he who has taken into marriage a widow or a rejected from matrimony, or a harlot, or a slave, or a disgraceful woman, cannot be either a bishop, or a presbyter, or a deacon, or even in the list of a sacred rank (Apostle 18).
Repeating those requirements for those who receive the priesthood, which have already been established (see Apt. Pr. 17 and 18 with their interpretation), 6 Omn. The Council clarifies and adds the prohibition, which has always existed in the Church from the beginning, for elders, deacons and subdeacons to marry after ordination (cf. 6 Ave. 6 Omn. Coll.). The condescension shown by the Council to certain categories of clergy who are in marriages that are not permitted by the canons are no longer valid, for it was imposed only for a certain period of time, with an effect limited to a certain period.
4. If someone - a bishop, presbyter, deacon, subdeacon, reader, singer, or doorman - has intercourse with a woman consecrated to God: let him be expelled from his rank, as he who mocked the bride of Christ; if he is a layman, let him be excommunicated from the communion of the Church.
Mentioned in this rule “a wife consecrated to God,” called “the bride of Christ,” are the virgins who made a vow to “live in purity” (18 St. Basil the Great). The rite of consecration of these virgins was performed by the bishop (6 ave. Of Carthage Sob.) And they lived under his supervision, separated from their parents. Here we are not talking about deaconesses, but rather about nuns. Wed: 6 Vsell. 21; Karf. 36; Vasily Vel. 3, 6, 32, 51 and 70.
5. None of the sacred rite, who does not have with him unsuspecting living persons, indicated in the rule (3 pr. 1 Vsel. Sob.), May not take a woman or a slave to him, thus saving himself from criticism. If anyone we have determined transgresses: let him be thrown out. Let the eunuchs also observe this, protecting themselves from censure. And those who transgress, if they are from the clergy, may be cast out; if they are worldly, may they be excommunicated.
The rule referred to by this rule is 3 pr. 1 Vsell. Cathedral. Repeating the precepts of that rule regarding persons in the priesthood, the present rule adds to them the laity, indicating that this must be done, "protecting oneself from censure." T. vol. this rule teaches us that we must avoid that which can cause temptation and sin of condemnation in others. Wed You. Conducted. 88.
6. Since it is said in the Apostolic canons that from among those who are unmarried into the clergy, only readers and singers can marry (Apostle pr. 26), then we, observing this, determine: yes, henceforth, neither the subdeacon, nor the deacon, nor the presbyter has permission, after ordination over him, to enter into marriage; if he dares to do this, let him be thrown out. But if any of those entering the clergy wants to marry with a woman according to the law of marriage: he must do this before being ordained a subdeacon, or a deacon, or a presbyter.
In this canon, the attention of commentators dwelled on the fact that here the word “ordination” refers not only to deacons, but also to subdeacons, as if the latter were not members of the lower degrees of the clergy, contrary to the dogmatic teaching of the Church about the existence of three, and not more, degrees of priesthood. The explanation of this bewilderment can be cited in the words of St. Patriarch Tarasius on 7 Vsell. Council about the same term in 8 Ave. 1 Obs. Cathedral: “Word ordination it could be said here simply about blessing, and not about ordination. " Wed Ap. 26; 4 Vsell. fourteen; 6 Vse. 13; Ankh, 10; Neokes. 1; Carthaginian 20.
7. Since we learned that in some churches deacons have ecclesiastical offices, and therefore some of them, allowing themselves insolence and self-will, preside over presbyters, for the sake of this we determine: a deacon, if he had dignity, that is, any ecclesiastical office, would not to occupy places above the presbyter, unless, representing the person of his patriarch or metropolitan, he arrives at another city for some business, for then, as the one who takes his place, he will be honored. If someone dares to do this with violence and insolence: such, having been reduced from his degree, let him be the last of all in the order to which he is numbered in his church. Still, our Lord not to love the presidency convinces us of the teaching proposed by the holy Evangelist Luke, on behalf of our Lord and God himself. For He told those who were invited such a parable: Whenever you will be invited to a marriage by someone, do not sit in the front seat, but whoever is more honest than you will be in those who are called, and who has come and who has called you and he speaks to you, give him a place; and then start with shame to keep the last place. But whenever you are called, sit in the last place, and whenever the one who calls comes, he says: friend, sit higher; then will thy glory be before those reclining with thee. For everyone who ascends will be humbled, and whoever is humbled will be exalted (Luke 14: 7-12). This same thing is observed in other degrees of the sacred rite - for we know that spiritual dignities or positions are superior to positions related to the world (that is, the position of a presbyter is more important than the position of a great economist or Eudicus).
See explanation for 18 Ave. 1 Vsell. Cathedral. The rule allows a deviation from the norm only in cases where the deacon would have arrived in any city as a representative of the Patriarch or bishop, which happened in ancient times since deacons had more participation in diocesan administration than presbyters. However, in this case, the honor to the deacon, as the representative of the bishop, was not in divine services, but in meetings outside the church. Wed Laod. twenty
8. Established by our holy fathers, wishing to preserve everything in everything, we renew the same rule (4 Omn. Council rule 10), commanding the councils of bishops to be annually in every region where the bishop of the metropolitanate sees the best. But how, due to the raid of the barbarians and due to other accidental obstacles, the primates of the churches do not have the opportunity to compose councils twice a year, then it is reasoned: for those who are likely to have church affairs, in every region, it is in every possible way to have a council of the aforementioned bishops once a year. , between the holy feast of Easter, and between the end of the month of October of each year, in the place that, as mentioned above, will be elected by the bishop of the metropolis. And for the bishops who do not come to the council, although they are in their own cities, and, moreover, are in health, and are free from all necessary and urgent occupations, it is brotherly to express their censure.
See explanation to 37 Apt. rule. This rule emphasizes that participation in the Council for bishops is not an exercise of a right, but a fulfillment of a duty. Therefore, for those of them who would not have come to the Council out of unwillingness, and not because of important obstacles, it was decided to "condemn brotherly."
9. No one is allowed to keep the inn. For if such a person is not allowed to enter the inn, then all the more to serve others in it, and to practice what is indecent for him. If someone does something like that: either let him cease, or let him be thrown out.
Wed Ap. 54 with an explanation.
10. A bishop, presbyter, or deacon, who levies extra money, or the so-called hundredths, or let it cease, or let it be rejected.
See explanation 44 Apt. regulations.
11. None of those belonging to the sacred order, or of the laity, should not eat the unleavened bread given by the Jews, or enter into fellowship with them, neither call them in illness, and take medicine from them, nor wash with them in the baths. If anyone dares to do this, then the cleric will be expelled, and the layman will be excommunicated.
See 7 rights explanation. Holy Apostles. In common parlance, the unleavened bread referred to in this rule is called matzoya.
12. It came to our attention that in Africa, Libya, and in other places, some of the most God-loving primates there (the primate - instead of the name of the Bishop), and according to the ordination performed over them, do not leave their lives together with their spouses, believing that they stumble and temptation to others. Having great diligence in order to arrange everything for the benefit of the entrusted flocks, we recognized it for the good, so that from now on there will be nothing of that kind. This is not a word for postponing, or transforming the Apostolic statute, but taking care of salvation and the prosperity of people for the better, and that, let us not allow any criticism of the sacred title. For the Divine Apostle is gloating: do everything for the glory of God; Be immutable to the Jews, and the Hellenes, and the Church of God, just as I please in everything, not seeking my own benefit, but many, may they be saved. Be my imitators, as I am Christ (1 Corinth. 10: 31-33; 11: 1). If anyone is discerned, he who does not do this, let him be cast out.
Fathers 6 Vsell. Councils, prescribing celibacy for bishops, did not introduce anything new, but fixed a custom that had already entered the life of the Church. Thus, the life of some bishops in Africa and Libya in marriage was an exception, "believing that the stumbling and temptation of others." Blessed. Theodorite as interpreted on 1 Tim. 3: 2 explains that at one time the Apostle had to admit married people to the episcopate, for the preaching of the gospel was in its infancy; the pagans had no idea of virginity, the Jews did not allow it, since the birth of children was considered a blessing. However, the Apostle Paul wrote about the superiority of virginity over married life. The monasticism that emerged later gave the Church the most outstanding hierarchs, and already at the beginning of the 4th century, the celibacy of the bishop was viewed as a phenomenon underlying the church system. Emperor Constantine greeted the audience at 1 Vsel. A council of bishops as representatives of virgin purity. “Without any law,” writes prof. VV Bolotov, “practically celibacy of bishops became more and more common” (Lectures on the History of the Ancient Church. History of the Church in the Period of Ecumenical Councils, St. Petersburg, 1913, 3, p. 145). That. Canon 12 introduces into the written law that which has already existed for several centuries in the practice of the Church and has become her tradition. Wed 6 Vse. 30 and 48.
13. Since we learned that in the Roman Church, in the form of a rule, it is ordained that those who have to be ordained to the deacon, or presbyter, were obliged not to communicate with their wives any longer: then we, following the ancient rule of the Apostolic order and order, deign, so that the cohabitation of clergymen in accordance with the law would continue to be inviolable, by no means breaking their union with their wives, and not depriving them of their mutual union at a decent time. And those who appear worthy of being ordained to subdeacon, or to deacon, or to presbyter, such by no means will be an obstacle to the elevation to such a degree of coexistence with a lawful spouse; and from him at the time of the appointment, yes, no obligation is required that he refrain from legal communication with his wife; so that we are not forced in this way to offend the blessed marriage established by God and by Him at His coming. For the voice of the Gospel cries out: what God has united, let not man separate (Matthew 19: 6). And the Apostle teaches: marriage is honest, and the bed is not deep (Heb. 13: 4). Likewise: you are attached to your wife, do not seek permission (1 Cor. 7:27). We know that those gathered in Carthage, having care for the purity of the life of the clergy, ordered that the subdeacons who touch the sacred secrets, and deacons and presbyters, in their appointed times, refrain from their concubines. Thus, both from the Apostles transmitted, and from the very antiquity observed, and we likewise preserve, knowing the time of all things, and especially fasting and prayer. For those who stand on the altar, at the time when they approach the shrine, it is fitting to be abstinent in everything, so that they can receive from God in simplicity what they ask for. If someone, acting contrary to the Apostolic canons, dares any of the sacred, that is, presbyters, deacons, or subdeacons, to deprive him of his union and treatment with his lawful wife: let him be cast out. Likewise, if someone, a presbyter, or a deacon, under the guise of reverence, drives out his wife: let him be excommunicated from the priesthood, and being adamant, let him be thrown out.
This rule is made against the Roman practice of forcible celibacy among the entire clergy. Because of this rule, however, which was nevertheless included in the Corpus juris canonici, Cardinal Humbert called the Orthodox Church heretical, infected with the Nicolaitic heresy (Acts 6: 6), known for its dissolute life. At present, contrary to such an extreme view, which was especially expressed in 385 by Pope Siricius, who completely did not allow married clergy to serve in the priesthood, clergy marriage was allowed not only among the Uniates, but with special permission in the Western rite. Catholic Church... Wed Ap. 5, 26 and 51; 6 Vse. thirty; Gangr. 4; Karf. 3,4, 34, and 81.
14. Let the rule of the saints and God-bearing our father be observed in this: so that before the age of thirty years we may not be ordained as a presbyter, even if a person were very worthy, but postpone until he was reduced to years. For the Lord Jesus Christ in the thirtieth year was baptized and began to teach. Likewise, a deacon before the age of twenty-five, and a deaconess before the age of forty, must not be appointed.
In the Russian Church, the earlier ordination of clergy has long been permitted due to need. Wed Neokes. eleven; Karf. 22.
15. Let the subdeacon not be delivered before twenty years of age. If anyone, in any sacred degree, will be placed before certain years: let him be cast out.
Wed Neokes. eleven; Karf. 22.
16. Since in the book of Acts of the Apostles it is narrated that seven deacons were appointed from the Apostles: the fathers of the Neocaesarean Council, in the rules they established, clearly reasoned that seven deacons should be according to the rule, even if it was in this great city, confirming in this by the book of Acts: for sake, we, comparing the thought of the fathers with the saying of the Apostles, found that they had a word not about men serving the sacraments, but about serving the needs of meals. For in the book of Acts it is written as follows: in one day to the multiplied disciples, the Hellenes murmur against the Jews, who were despised in the daily ministry of their widow. And calling the twelve multitude of disciples, deciding: it is not pleasing for us who have left the word of God to serve meals; Behold, brothers, seven men have been testified from you, filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom; we will set them over this service; we will abide in prayer and the ministry of the Word. And this word was pleasing to all the people; and Ibrash Stephen, her husband full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prokhor, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Paramen, and Nicholas, a stranger of Antioch, who he set before the Apostles. Explaining this, the teacher of the Church, John Chrysostom, talks like this: it is worthy of wonder that the people were not divided at the election of men; how the Apostles were not rejected by them. But one must know what dignity these men had, and what kind of ordination they accepted: to the degree of deacons? - but these were not in the Churches: to the office of elders? - but there was still no bishop, but only the Apostles; For this reason, I think that neither the name of the deacons nor the presbyters was known and used. Based on this, we also preach that the above seven deacons should not be acceptable for the ministers of the sacraments, according to the teaching set forth, but the essence of those who were entrusted with the economy for the general need of those gathered; and they were for us in this case a model of philanthropy and care for the needy.
Rule 15 of the Neocaesarean Council decreed that there should not be more than seven deacons in one city. To harmonize it with the existing practice, when at one great church there were 100 deacons in Constantinople, the fathers of the Council explained the difference in the ministry of the deacons mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and the deacons now serving in the Church.
17. Even the clerics of various churches, leaving their churches in which they were ordained, went over to other bishops, and, without the will of their bishop, were appointed in other churches, and through this they turn out to be disobedient: for this sake, we determine that from the month of January of the last fourth indicative of the clergy, no matter how much anyone was, had no right, without a letter of dismissal from their bishop, to be assigned to another church. He who does not observe this from now on, but who shames with himself who has been ordained over him, may he himself be thrown out and the one who incorrectly received it.
Wed Ap. 12 and an explanation of it.
18. We command the clerics who, due to the invasion of the barbarians, or for some other reason left their places, when the circumstances, or the barbarian invasions that were the reason for their removal, are removed, return to their churches again, and they should not be left for a long time without a reason. If someone remains absent, disagreeing with this rule: let him be excommunicated until he returns to his church. May the bishop who retains him be subjected to the same.
Wed Ap. 15 and the parallel rules indicated to it.
19. The primates of the churches must all the days, especially on Sundays, teach the whole clergy and people the words of piety, choosing from the Divine Scripture the understanding and reasoning of truth, and without breaking the already set limits and tradition of the God-giving fathers; and if the word of Scripture is investigated, then they do not explain it otherwise, except as the luminaries and teachers of the Church have stated in their writings, and they are more convinced than composing their own words, so that, with a lack of skill in this, they do not deviate from what is appropriate. For, through the teaching of the above-mentioned fathers, people, receiving knowledge about the good and worthy of election, and about the unhelpful and worthy of disgust, correct their lives for the better, and do not suffer from the ailment of ignorance, but, listening to the teaching, induce themselves to move away from evil, and, fear of threatening punishment, make their own salvation.
20. May the bishop not be allowed to teach publicly in another city that does not belong to him. If anyone is seen to do this, let him cease from the bishop, and let him do the works of presbytery.
This rule is among the others that protect the diocese from the interference of outside bishops. As for the punishment indicated to him, Bishop John of Smolensky explains: “This does not mean that a bishop guilty against the rules should be relegated to the rank of presbyter (which would be contrary to the general rules of the Church - 4 Omn. Reg. 29), but it means that he is deprived of the power of the episcopal (or, more directly, the cathedra) and becomes one of the subordinate clergymen, not only losing his priesthood. " Wed Ap. 14 and 35; Ankir. eighteen; Antiochus. 13 and 22; Sardicus. 3 and 11.
21. Those who are found guilty of crimes contrary to the rules and for this are subjected to a perfect and everlasting eruption from their rank, and into the state of the laity are expelled, if, coming voluntarily into repentance, they reject the sin for which they have lost grace, and from it they completely eliminate themselves: let them cut their hair in the image clear. If they do not spontaneously wish it: let the hair grow like the laity, as those who prefer conversion to the world of heavenly life.
This rule states that a defrocked person cannot be reinstated. The greatest condescension that this rule allows, subject to sincere repentance, is to allow such a person to maintain the appearance of a cleric. The dress code and hair cutting in different eras were different, but from a very long time, the principle was observed that the clergy would differ in appearance from the laity. Wed 27 Ave. of the same Cathedral.
22. Bishops or to any degree of clergy who are supplied for money, and not by trial and election for a way of life, we command to expel, as well as those by whom they are appointed.
See interpretation at 29 Apt. rule. Wed Ave 4 Vsell. Own. 2; 7 Sun Own. 5 and 19; St. Basil Vel. 90; Last Patr. Gennady and St. Tarasia.
23. None of the bishops, elders, or deacons teaching holy communion, let him not demand from the one who partakes for such communion money or anything else. For grace is not sellable, and we do not teach the sanctification of the Spirit for money, but we must uncleanly teach it to those who are worthy of this gift. If any of the clergy are seen to demand some kind of reward from the one to whom he is giving the Holy Communion: let him be cast out as a zealot of Simon's delusion and deceit.
This rule has a broader meaning than just the prohibition to demand money for the sacrament. It generally prohibits extortion of money for any sacraments taught to believers. Such a sin is always something close to simony, for the latter is not the only possible form of deed, in which the priest will turn “unsold grace into sale” (4 Vsev. 2).
24. None of those listed in the priestly rank, not a monk, are allowed to go to horse stadiums or attend shameful games. And if someone from the clergy is called to marriage, then when games appear that serve to deception, let him get up and immediately leave, for this is what the teaching of our fathers commands us. If anyone is convicted of this: either let him cease, or let him be cast out.
Wed 6 Vse. 51 and 62; Laod. 54; Karf. eighteen.
25. Together with all the others, we renew that rule (4 Sun of the Sobor of Rights. 17), which commands that for each church the parishes existing in villages or suburbs should invariably remain under the rule of the bishops ruling them, and especially if these are for thirty years blamelessly had these in their jurisdiction and administration. If, however, no further than thirty years there has been or will be some dispute about them: then it is permissible for those who consider themselves offended to start a matter about this in front of the regional council.
See 17 pr. 4 Vsell. Cathedral and explanations to it.
26. An elder, through ignorance, pledged to an incorrect marriage, let him use the presbyter's seat, in accordance with what is ordained to us in the sacred rule (Neokes. It is not fitting to bless another who is supposed to heal his own ulcers. For blessing is the teaching of sanctification: but whoever does not have it, because of the sin of ignorance, how will he give it to another? For this, let him not bless either publicly or especially, and let him not share the body of the Lord with others, perform any other service, but be content with a clerical place, and ask the Lord with tears to forgive him the sins of ignorance. By itself, it is clear that such a wrong marriage will collapse, and the husband will by no means have cohabitation with the one through whom he has lost the sacred rite.
See Vasily Vel. 27 and interpretation.
27. None of those who are in the clergy should dress in indecent clothes, neither while in the city, nor while on the road, but each of them uses the clothes already assigned to those in the clergy. If anyone does this: let him be excommunicated from the priesthood for one week.
Bp. Nicodemus remarks about this rule: “The rule is clear. As at the time of the Trul Council, the dress code for clergy was prescribed, so now this issue is regulated by the legislation of the local Churches, and therefore every cleric must obey; otherwise, according to this rule, he is subject to excommunication for one week. " Wed 21 Ave. 6 Vsell. Cathedral; 7 Abs. Own. 16; Gangr. 12 and 21.
28. We have learned before that in various churches, according to a certain intensified custom, grapes are brought to the altar, and the clergy, combining this with the bloodless sacrifice, share the wallpaper with the people in this way, for this sake it is necessary we recognize, but none of the clergy does this from now on, but let them give the people a single offering, for the revitalization and forgiveness of sins, but the priests accept the offering of grapes as the first fruits, and, blessing it especially, let them give it to those who ask, in gratitude to the Giver of the fruits, which, according to God's definition, our bodies are brought back and nourished. But if someone from the rank acts contrary to the commandment: let him be cast out from his rank.
See interpretation of 3 Apt. regulations.
29. The rule of the fathers of the Carthaginian Council commands that the sacred rite of the altar (Liturgy) should not be performed otherwise, unless by non-eaten people, except for one day in the year, on which the Lord's supper is performed (Carthage of the Council is right. 48). These Holy Fathers, perhaps for some local reasons useful for the Church, made such an order. And before us nothing prompts us to abandon reverential severity, then following the Apostolic and paternal traditions, we determine: what is not appropriate at four days, on Thursday of the last week, to stop fasting, and thereby dishonor at four days.
The present rule is an amendment to Karf. 50.
30. Desiring to create everything for the building up of the Church, we reasoned to improve the new priests in foreign churches as well. For the sake of it, if they for their due impute to continue to act the Apostolic canon (5), prohibiting expelling their wife under the guise of piety, and they think more established, and for this, in agreement with their spouses, they withdraw from communication with each other: we determine, yes no longer have cohabitation with them, under any guise, so that in this way they would show us a perfect proof of their answer. This was allowed to them, not for the sake of anything else, except for the sake of their faint-hearted thoughts, and still alien and uncomfortable morals.
This rule had a temporary and local significance for some churches outside the borders of the Greco-Roman state.
31. We determine that the clergy, who perform clergy or baptize in prayer temples located inside the houses, do this only by the will of the local bishop. For the sake of that, if any cleric does not observe it in this way, let him be expelled.
58 ave. Of the Laodicean Council forbade the celebration of the Liturgy “in homes,” that is, not in consecrated temples... This rule speaks of “prayer temples located inside houses,” which were not consecrated by bishops. In the abolition of the definition of the Laodicean Council, they allow the celebration of divine services, but only with the permission of the bishop.
32. It has come to our attention that in the Armenian country those who make a bloodless sacrifice bring one wine at a holy meal, without dissolving it with water, citing the teacher of the Church John Chrysostom in their justification, who, in his interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew, is gloating this: why did not the risen Lord drink water but wine? - in order to root out another unholy heresy. For as a matter of fact, some who use water in the sacrament: for this sake he indicates that he used wine both when he taught the sacrament, and after the resurrection, when he offered a simple meal, without the sacrament, and, pointing out this, gloolet: from the fruit of the vine (Matt. 26:29), but the vine produces wine and does not produce water. From this it is inferred that this teacher rejects the addition of water in the holy sacrifice. For the sake of such that they would not henceforth be possessed by ignorance, we open the Orthodox understanding of this father. There was an ancient evil heresy of idroparastats, that is, the water-bearers, who in their sacrifice, instead of wine, used one water: then this God-bearing man, refuting the lawless teaching of such heresy, and showing that they are going directly against the Apostolic tradition, used the above words. For he, too, to his Church, over which the pastoral government was entrusted to him, handed over to add water to wine when it is necessary to make a bloodless sacrifice, indicating the union of blood and water, from the most pure rib of our Redeemer and Savior Christ God, which flowed out to the revitalization of the whole world and to redemption from sins. And in all the churches, where the spiritual luminaries shone, this God-devoted rite is preserved. Ponezh and Jacob, Christ our God in the flesh, brother, to whom the throne of the Jerusalem Church was first entrusted, and Basil of the Church of Caesarea, Archbishop, whose glory has flowed throughout the entire universe, having transferred to us a mysterious sacred rite in writing, put in the Divine Liturgy, from water and wine, to compose a holy cup. And those gathered in Carthage, the venerable fathers, uttered these words as though they were: let nothing more be brought in the sacrament, to the very body and blood of the Lord, just as the Lord himself handed it over, that is, bread and wine, dissolved in water. If someone, a bishop, or a presbyter, creates, not according to the order given from the Apostles, and does not combine water with wine, in this way he makes a pure sacrifice: let him be thrown out, as the one who proclaims the sacrament imperfectly, and damaging by innovation.
33. We have learned before that in the Armenian country only those who are from the priestly family are accepted into the clergy, in which those who undertake this will follow the Jewish customs, and some of them, and not having received the ordination of the clergy, are supplied by priests and readers of the Divine Temple: then we suppose, let it not be allowed from now on to those who wish to elevate some to the clergy, henceforth to look at the kind of what is being produced; but testing whether they are worthy, according to the definitions depicted in the sacred rules, to be numbered among the clergy, let them be promoted into servants of the church, even if they come from consecrated ancestors, at least not. Likewise, let no one be allowed from the pulpit to proclaim Divine words to the people, according to the order of the clergy, unless someone is awarded the consecration with tonsure and receives a blessing from his pastor, in accordance with the rules. But if anyone is seen to be creative in spite of what was prescribed, let him be excommunicated.
The rule was caused by the fact that among the Armenians only persons of spiritual origin were accepted into the clergy. In addition, persons of this origin were admitted as readers and singers without initiation. The canon condemns such an order as contradicting 15 ave. Of the Laodicean Council. Wed 7 Abs. fourteen.
34. The sacred canon (4 of the All. Council of Pra. 18) clearly proclaims this also that the crime of deliberation, or the formation of a congregation, is completely forbidden by external laws: much more must be forbidden, but this does not happen in the Church of God, then we try to observe , yes, if some clergy or monks are seen to be entering into contemplations or assemblies, or building kings for bishops or co-clerics, they will be overthrown from their degree.
Wed Ave Ap. 31; 4 Vsell. eighteen; Karf. ten; Two-way 13, 14 and 15.
35. May it not be allowed to any of the metropolitans, upon the death of a bishop subject to his throne, to take away or appropriate his estate, or his church, but may it be protected by the clergy of that church, of which the primate was introduced, even before the work of another bishop; unless there are no clerics left in that church. Then the Metropolitan shall keep it intact and give everything to the bishop, who will be appointed.
Wed Ave Ap. 40; 4 Vsell. 22 and 25; Antiochus. 24; Karf. 31 and 92.
36. Renewing the law ordained by one hundred and fifty Holy Fathers, who gathered in this God-preserved and reigning city (2 All. Sobor of rights, 3), and six hundred and thirty gathered in Chalcedon (4 All. Sobor of rights. 28), we determine: yes, the throne of Constantinople has equal advantages with the throne ancient Rome, and like this, let it be exalted in church affairs, being the second in it; after this, yes, there is the throne of the great city of Alexandria, then the throne of Antioch, and behind this the throne of the city of Jerusalem.
Wed pr. 1 Vsell. 6 and 7; 2 Vsell. 2 and 3; 4 Vsell. 28.
37. Ponezh in different times there were barbaric invasions, and because of this, the most numerous cities became enslaved by the lawless, and for this reason it was impossible for the primate of such, after being ordained over him, to accept his throne, to establish himself on it in a state of priesthood, and so, according to the devotional custom, ordination and everything that It is natural for a bishop to produce and perform, for this sake, observing the priesthood honor and respect and wishing that enslavement from the pagans did not act to the detriment of ecclesiastical rights, we decided: yes, they are ordained and, for the above reason, those who have not ascended to their thrones are not subject to this is a prejudice; why, according to the rules, they also perform ordinations to different degrees of the clergy, and use the advantage of the presidency, and let any commanding action arising from them be recognized as firm and lawful. For the need of time and obstacles in maintaining accuracy should not be constrained by the limits of management.
Wed Ave Ap. 36; 6 Vse. 39; Ankir. eighteen; Antiochus. eighteen.
38. Our fathers preserve the established rule, which reads as follows: if a city is rebuilt by the tsarist power, or will be established in the future, then the distribution of church affairs should also follow civil and zemstvo distribution (4 All. Sobor rights. 17).
Wed 2 Vsell. 3; 4 Vsell. 17.
39. Ponezhe our brother and colleague John, the primate of the island of Cyprus, bought with his people, because of the barbaric invasions, and in order to free himself from pagan slavery, and faithfully submit to the scepter of the Christian state, from the mentioned island moved to the Hellespian region through the providence of a man-loving God and the diligence of a Christ-loving and pious our king, then we decree: may the advantages given to the throne above the named man be preserved unchanged, from the God-bearing fathers, who once gathered in Ephesus, may the new Justinianople have the rights of Constantinople, and the God-loving bishop established therein may rule over all the bishops of the Hellesponian region let it be supplied from our bishops according to the ancient custom. For our God-bearing fathers also judged that the customs of each Church should be observed, and the bishop of the city of Kyziches obeys the primate of the aforementioned Justinianopolis, following the example of all other bishops subject to the above-mentioned God-loving primate John, from whom, when required, and the city of Kyzikos and the city of bishop.
This rule serves as the basis for the existence of the Russian Church Abroad. It justified the acceptance of the Supreme Church Administration South of Russia in Constantinople and granting him jurisdiction over Russian refugees there, and then to justify the Russian Church Administration in the form of Councils and Synod on the territory of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
40. Even though it is very salutary to join God, by moving away from the rumors of everyday life, we must not without trial and prematurely accept those who choose the monastic life, but also in relation to them observe the decree handed down to us from the fathers: and for this sake we must take the vow of life according to God, as already solid and derived from knowledge and reasoning, after the full opening of the mind. And so, those who intend to enter under the yoke of monasticism may be no less than ten years old, but even for such, it is in the power of the ruler to consider whether he considers it most useful to continue his time, before introducing the monastic life and confirming it. For although the great Basil, in his sacred rules, stipulates that those who voluntarily devote themselves to God and choose virginity after completing her seventeen years should be ranked as virgins; however, we, following the example of the rules on widows and deaconesses, according to the definition: for those who chose the monastic life the above-mentioned number of years. For it is prescribed by the Divine Apostle: to elect a widow in the Church for sixty years (1 Tim. 5: 9); and the sacred rules handed over to the deaconess to deliver forty years: it was not already provided that the Church, by the grace of God, received great strength and perfection, and the faithful in keeping the Divine commandments are firm and trustworthy. This and we, having fully comprehended, in accordance with this, determined: intending to begin deeds according to God, soon to sign with a sign of grace, as a kind of seal, thereby helping him not to touch for a long time, not to hesitate, more encouraging him to choose good and to assert himself in it.
Proceeding from the fact that Orthodoxy has become stronger, this rule lowers the age for taking monastic vows in comparison with that specified in rule 18 of Basil the Great. Wed Karf. 140.
41. Those who wish to retire in the towns, or in villages, to retire to seclusion and to listen to themselves in solitude, must first enter the monastery, learn to live a hermit, obey for three years the head of the monastery in the fear of God, and in everything, as befits, obedience to fulfill, and so express their will for such a life and tested by the local abbot: whether from the bottom of their hearts they voluntarily join it. Therefore, even during the course of the year, they must patiently remain outside the seclusion, so that their intentions may be revealed more. For then they will give perfect assurance that, not for the sake of seeking vain glory, but for the sake of the true good, they strive for this silence. After the fulfillment of a little time, if they remain in the same intention, let them enter into seclusion; but they are no longer allowed to proceed, at will, from such a stay; unless it is required by a public service or benefit, or other necessity, even a death sickening, and then with the blessing of the local bishop. Those who dare to proceed from their dwellings without any stated reason, first, to confine them in the aforementioned seclusion and against their wishes; then correct them by posts and other strictness; We know before, as according to what is said in the Scripture: no one who has laid his hand on the helm and turns back, is ruled into the Kingdom of Heaven (Luke 9:62).
Wed 4 Vsell. 4; Two-way 4.
42. About the so-called hermits, who in black clothes and with grown hair, bypass the cities, turning among worldly husbands and wives, and despising their vows, we define: if they will, having tonsured their hair, accept the image of other monastics, then assign them to the monastery and rank them among the brethren ... If they do not wish this, then completely drive them out of the cities, and they live in the deserts, from which they have made a name for themselves.
Wed 4 Vsell. 4; Two-way 4.
43. It is permissible for a Christian to choose an ascetic life, and, after abandoning the many-rebellious storm of everyday affairs, enter a monastery, and tonsure in the image of a monk, if he were convicted of any fall into sin. For our Savior is the God of the rivers: the one who comes to Me will not be banished out (John 6:37). Ponezhe monastic life depicts us a life of repentance, which we sincerely approve of; and no previous way of life will prevent him from fulfilling his intention.
Wed 4 Vsell. 4; Two-way 2 and 4.
44. A monk who has been convicted of fornication or who has eaten his wife in communion of marriage and cohabitation, may be subject to the rules of penance for the fornication.
Wed 4 Vsell. 16; Ankir. 19; Vasily Vel. 6, 18, 19 and 60.
45. We have learned before that in some women's monasteries, which bring those who are worthy of this sacred image, they first clothe them with silk multi-colored clothes, speckled with gold and precious stones, and from those approaching the altar in this way, they remove such a magnificent garment, and at the same hour over them the blessing of the monastic image is performed, and they are clothed in a black robe, for that sake we determine: but from now on this does not happen at all. For it is unseemly that, by her own will, having already put off all the pleasantness of life, having loved life according to God, having been affirmed in it by her unyielding thoughts and thus approaching the monastery, through such a perishable and disappearing decoration, return to the memory of what she has already consigned to oblivion, and from this would have appeared wavering and rebelled in the soul, like drowning waves, rotating here and there, so that, sometimes shedding tears, she does not show heart contrition; but if, which is peculiar to it, and a small tear falls, then these seers will think of what is happening not only from zeal to the monastic deed, coliko from separation from the world and from what is in the world.
46. Those who have chosen an ascetic life and have been assigned to monasteries do not proceed at all. If some inevitable need prompts them to do this: let them do this with the blessing and permission of the abbess; but even then they must proceed not alone by themselves, but with some eldresses, and with those who are leading in the monastery, at the behest of the abbess. They are not allowed to spend the night outside the monastery at all. Likewise, men who are passing through the monastic life, let them proceed when the need arises, with the blessing of the one to whom the leadership is entrusted. Therefore, those who violate these things our established definition, husbands or wives, may undergo decent penances.
Wed 6 Vse. 47.
47. Neither the wife in the men's monastery, nor the husband in the women's monastery should sleep. For the faithful must be aloof from all stumbling and temptation, and order their lives well in accordance with decency and grace in the Lord (1 Cor. 7:35). If anyone does this, whether a cleric or a layman: let him be excommunicated.
Wed 7 Abs. 18 and 20.
48. The wife of those promoted to episcopal dignity, first separated from her husband, by common consent, upon his ordination to the bishop, may enter a monastery, which was created far from the habitation of this bishop, and may receive support from the bishop. If she is worthy to appear: let her be elevated to the dignity of a deaconess.
Wed 6 Vse. 12.
49. Renewing this sacred rule (4 Sun. Council of Rights. 24), we determine that once consecrated, by the will of the bishop, monasteries remain forever monasteries, and the property belonging to them is observed to the monastery, and so that they can no longer be secular dwellings, and by no one could not be transferred to worldly people. If until now this has happened to some of them, then we determine: yes, they will not be held back at all; Those who dare to do this from the present time, let them be subject to penance according to the rules.
Wed Ap. 38; 4 Vsell. 24; 7 Abs. 12, 13 and 17; Two-way 1.
50. None of the laity and clergy will henceforth indulge in an reprehensible game. If anyone is seen to be doing this, then the cleric will be cast out, and the layman will be excommunicated from the communion of the Church.
Wed Ap. 42 and 43.
51. This holy ecumenical council completely forbids ridiculers to be, and their spectacles, as well as animal spectacles, and dancing in disgrace. If someone despises the present rule and surrenders to any of these forbidden amusements: then the cleric will be expelled from the clergy, and the layman will be excommunicated from the communion of the Church.
Wed 6 Vse. 24; Laod. 54; Karf. eighteen.
52. On all days of the fast of the holy fourties, except for Saturday and Sunday and the holy day of the Annunciation, the holy liturgy is not other than the previously sanctified gifts.
Bp. John of Smolensky: “Since the four-month period is a time of universal repentance and confession of sins for Christians, the Holy Church subjects all of them at this time, as it were, a penance, which at other times is imposed on only some, namely: it offers believers only the reading of prayers and the words of God , but does not allow them to see the fulfillment of the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. But for those who are weak in spirit and body, and in general, in order that the prolonged deprivation of St. gifts not to weaken our spirit, the Church reveals to us in the course of the weeks of fasting the gifts previously sanctified…. The Liturgy is a solemn service…. But the four-month period is a time of heartfelt contrition for sins…. Therefore, the Church recognizes both indecent and, as it were, dares to celebrate the full Liturgy these days in a broken spirit. " (Experience of the Course of Church Law, vol. 1 pp. 459-560).
53. Even the affinity in spirit is more important than union in the body, and we have learned that in some places, some who receive children from holy and salvific baptism after this enter into marriage with their mothers, widows, then we determine: so that from the present time nothing of this kind would be creative. If, according to this rule, those who do this will be seen: such, firstly, let them depart from this illegal marriage, then let them be subjected to penance by those who commit adultery.
Spiritual kinship is formed by the receptivity between the recipients and the godson, the recipient and the parents of his godson. In Byzantium, by analogy between blood and spiritual kinship, there were laws prohibiting marriages with spiritual kinship up to the 7th degree inclusive, but there was no canonical basis for this. Russian imperial law in strict accordance with pr. 6 Vsel. 53 prescribed that: “1) the recipient cannot marry his spiritual daughter (1st step) and 2) the godfather cannot marry the widowed mother of his spiritual daughter (2nd step)”.
54. Divine Scripture clearly teaches us: do not approach every neighbor of your flesh to reveal his shame (Lev. 18: 6). The God-bearing Basil, in his rules, numbered some of the forbidden marriages, and very many passed in silence, and through both he arranged what was useful for us. For, avoiding many shameful names, so as not to defile words with such names, he signified impurities with general names, through which he showed us lawless marriages in general. But before, through such silence and the indiscriminate prohibition of illegal marriages, nature confused itself, then we recognized it necessary to openly state this, and henceforth determine: if someone copulates in marriage with his brother's daughter, or if father and son with mother and daughter, or with cousins father and son, or with cousins mother and daughter, or cousins with cousins - let them be subjected to the rule of seven-year penance, obviously after their separation from a lawless marriage.
The word "exadelphi" in the Rule Book is translated as "cousin." However, in reality it means the brother's daughter, that is, the niece. Wed Not OK. 2; You. Conducted. 23, 78 and 87; Tim. Al. eleven.
55. Since we have learned that those who dwell in the city of Rome, on holy fourtieth, fast on Saturdays, contrary to the faithful church succession, it is pleasing to the holy council, and in the Roman church the rule is inviolably observed, saying: if someone from the clergy will be discerned on the holy day of the Lord , or on the Sabbath, the one who is fasting, besides only one only, may be cast out, but if he is a layman, may he be excommunicated (Apt. 64).
Wed Ap. 64 and Gangr. eighteen.
56. We also learned that in the Armenian country and in other places on Saturdays and Sundays of the holy fourties, some cheese and eggs are eaten. For the sake of this, this is also recognized for the good, but the Church of God, throughout the entire universe, following the same order, fasts and abstains, both from everything that is slain, and from eggs and cheese, which are the fruit and products of what we abstain from. If they do not observe this, then the clergy will be thrown out, and the laity will be excommunicated.
Wed Ap. 64 and 69.
57. It is not proper to bring honey and milk to the altar.
Wed Ap. 3 and Karf. 46 with explanations.
58. Let none of those in the class of laity teach themselves the Divine Mysteries when there is a bishop or presbyter or deacon. He who dares to do something such as acting against the ordination, let him be excommunicated from church communion for one week, being instructed not to philosophize any more, it is fitting to philosophize (Rom. 12: 3).
In the first centuries of Christianity, especially during persecutions, it happened that the believers took home St. the sacrament and received communion ourselves, with our own hands. However, this entailed the crime of lack of awe. In addition, as a result of this custom, some lay people in the church also wanted to give the sacrament to themselves, and not to receive it from the hands of the priests. This rule eliminates such abuse and inappropriate lay claim.
59. Let baptism not be performed in a prayer book, which is found inside the house: but those who want to be rewarded with the most pure enlightenment to the Catholic Churches, let them come and be honored there with this gift. But if someone is accused of not keeping what we have decreed: then the cleric will be thrown out, and the layman will be excommunicated.
The severity of this rule, in cases of necessity and doubtless, is given the power to facilitate the Bishop, 31 by the rule of this Council. Wed 6 Vse. 31 and explanation.
60. Since the Apostle cries out that he who joins the Lord, there is one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17): it is evident that he who assimilates to his adversary is one with him, in communion. Therefore, it is reasoned: hypocritically raging and such a way of action, out of the malice of morals, pretending to accept punishment in any way and subject them to the same severity and labor as those who are truly raging, are righteously subjected to liberation from demonic action.
Wed Ap. 79; Vasily Vel. 83.
61. Those who surrender to wizards, or the so-called hundred chiefs (the oldest wise men), or others like that, in order to learn from them what they want to reveal to them, in accordance with the previous paternal decrees about them, may be subject to the rule of six years of penance. The same penance should be subjected to those who lead bears, or other animals, to ridicule and harm of the simplest, and combining deception with madness, pronounce fortune-telling about happiness, fate, genealogy and many other similar rumors; as well as the so-called cloud-chasers, charmers, makers of safety talismans and sorcerers. Those who become stiff in this and do not turn and do not run away from such pernicious and pagan fictions, we determine to completely spew out of the Church, just as the sacred rules command. For what a communion of light with darkness, like the apostle gloating: or some addition of the Church of God with idols; or what part is right with wrong; What kind of agreement between Christ and Beliar? (2 Cor. 6: 14-16).
Wed 6 Vse. 65; Ankir. 24; Laod. 36; Vasily Vel. 65, 72, 81 and 83; Gregory Nissk. 3.
62. We wish to completely remove the so-called kalends, vota, vrumalia and the popular gathering on the first day of the month of March from the lives of the faithful. Likewise, the nationwide female dances, great harm and harm to inflict the mighty, equally in honor of the gods, falsely so called by the Hellenes, dances and ceremonies performed by the masculine or female sex, according to some ancient and alien Christian life custom, are performed, we reject, and define: no husband not to dress in women's clothing, nor to a wife in her husband's clothing; not wear comic or satirical or tragic guises; when pressing the grapes in the wine press, do not proclaim the vile name of Dionysus, and when pouring wine into the barrels, do not make laughter, and, out of ignorance, or in the form of vanity, do not do what belongs to demonic charm. Therefore, those who henceforth, knowing this, dare to do any of the above, if they are clergy, we command to be expelled from the sacred rite, but if they are laity, to be excommunicated from church communion.
Under the name of kaleh, it is forbidden to celebrate the first day of each month, with rituals and amusements from paganism occurring under the name of Vota - the remnants of a pagan celebration in honor of Pan; under the name Vrumalia, - the remains of a celebration in honor of the pagan deity Dionysus or Bacchus, of which one of the names is Vromius. Wed 6 Vse. 24, 51 and 65; Laod. 54; Karf. 55 and 74.
63. The stories about the martyrs, falsely composed by the enemies of the truth, in order to de-glorify Christ's martyrs and bring those who hear them to unbelief, we command not to be made public in churches, but to set them on fire. We anathematize those who accept these or listen to them as if they were true.
Wed Ap. 60; 7 Abs. nine; Laod. 59.
64. It is not proper for a layman to utter a word in front of the people, or to teach, and thus take upon himself the dignity of a teacher, but to obey a devotee from the Lord, to open an ear to those who have received the grace of a teacher's word and from them to learn the Divine. For in one Church God created different members, according to the word of the Apostle (1 Cor. 12:27), which when explaining, Gregory the Theologian clearly shows the rank in them, saying: this, brethren, let us honor, this we will preserve; let this one be an ear, and that one a tongue; with this hand, and with the other something else; let this one teach, let this one learn. And after a few words, the gloolet goes on: let the student be in obedience, let the giver distribute with joy, let the servant serve with zeal. Let us not all be the tongue, if this is all the closest, not all the Apostles, not all the prophets, not all the interpreters. And after some words he still says: why do you make yourself a shepherd, being a sheep? Why do you become a head when you are a foot? Why are you attempting to be a military leader, having been placed in the ranks of the soldiers? And elsewhere wisdom commands: do not be quick in words (Eccl. 531): do not prostrate the poor with the rich (Proverbs 23: 4): do not seek the wise, the wisest to be. If anyone is found to be breaking this rule: for forty days, let him be excommunicated from church communion.
The main meaning of this rule is to prohibit the laity from public preaching in the temple on the objects of faith. But, at the same time, it speaks in general about the observance by the laity of the place indicated in the Church in the obedience of the hierarchy by the laity. The only full-fledged teacher in the Church is the bishop, and by his authority this ministry is performed by the elders. Bp. Nicodemus believes that, on the basis of this rule, even laypeople can pronounce funeral orations only with a special, each time, the blessing of the bishop. In current practice, the blessing of the burial priest is considered sufficient. Wed 7 Abs. fourteen; Laod. 15.
65. In the new month, some people light bonfires in front of their shops or houses, through which, according to some ancient custom, they are madly jumping, we command from now on to abolish. Therefore, if anyone does something like that: then the cleric will be expelled, and the layman will be excommunicated. For in the fourth book of Kings it is written: and make Manasseh an altar to all the power of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of the Lord, and guide your sons through fire, and do enmity and magic, and created ventriloquists, and multiplied sorceresses, and multiplied to do evil in the sight of the Lord, hedgehog to anger Him (2 Kings 21: 5-6).
Wed 6 Vse. 62
66. From the holy day of the resurrection of Christ our God to the new week, throughout the week the faithful should in the holy churches constantly practice in psalms and singing and spiritual songs, rejoicing and triumphing in Christ and listening to the reading of the Divine Scriptures, and enjoying the holy mysteries. For in this way, with Christ, we will be resurrected and ascended. For this, by no means on these days, let there be no horse rippling or other folk spectacle.
Wed Karf. 72.
67. Divine Scripture has commanded us to abstain from blood and strangulation and fornication (Acts 15:29). Therefore, for the sake of the dainting womb, the blood of any animal, who, by some art, prepare food for food, and such a one who eats, we prudently subject to penance. If from now on someone will eat the blood of an animal in any way: then the cleric will be expelled, and the layman will be excommunicated.
Wed Acts. 15:29; Ap. 63; Gangr. 2.
68. The books of the Old and New Testaments, as well as the saints and recognized our preachers and teachers, are not allowed to be damaged or cut by anyone, or to booksellers, or so-called world-class people, or to someone else to transfer for extermination: unless from moth or water, or to others. become incapable of use. Whoever does something like that from now on will be seen by the doer: let him be excommunicated for a year. Likewise, a person who buys such books, if he does not keep them from himself for his own benefit, will not give them to another for a benefit and for keeping, but he dares to damage them: let him be excommunicated.
The rule prescribes a reverent attitude towards the books of Holy Scripture and the works of St. fathers.
69. No one of all laymen should be allowed to enter the interior of the sacred altar. But according to some ancient legend, this power and dignity of the king is by no means forbidden when he wants to bring gifts to the Creator.
This rule is now often violated out of need. But also the Metropolitan. The Moscow Filaret did not allow psalmists who were in a second marriage and therefore deprived of the title of reader or the right to wear a surplice into the altar. In convents, old nuns are allowed to serve in the altar.
70. It is not permissible for wives to speak verb during the Divine Liturgy, but, according to the word of the Apostle Paul, let them be silent. I was not ordered to speak to them, but to obey, as the law speaks. If they want to learn something: in the house of their husbands, let them ask.
Wed 1 Cor. 14: 34-35; 6 Vse. 64; Laod. 44.
71. Students of civil law should not use Hellenic customs or be led to spectacles, or perform the so-called kilistra (the lot by which the teachers disassembled the students), or dress in clothes that are not in common use, not at the time when the teachings begin. neither when it is finished, nor in general in its continuation. If any one henceforth dares to do this: let him be excommunicated.
Neither Bp. Nicodemus, nor the Greek commentators. According to Valsamon, the kilistra were a kind of lot by means of which the teachers sorted out their pupils. English canonist Johnson seems closest to the truth, believing that this is an athletic exercise.
72. It is unworthy for an Orthodox husband to mate with a heretical wife, nor is it worthy for an Orthodox wife to marry a heretic husband. If something is seen, done by someone: consider marriage unsteady, and dissolve illegal living. For it does not order to mix the immiscible, nor to mate with the sheep of the wolf, and with the part of Christ the lot of sinners. If anyone transgresses what we have decreed, let him be excommunicated. But if some, while still in unbelief and not being numbered among the Orthodox herd, were united by a legal marriage, then one of them, choosing the good, resorted to the light of truth, and the other remained in the chains of error, not wanting to gaze at the Divine rays, and if while an unfaithful wife is pleased to cohabit with a faithful husband, or, on the contrary, an unfaithful husband with a faithful wife: then let not they be parted, according to the Divine Apostle: sanctified is the unfaithful husband from the wife, and the unfaithful wife from the husband is sanctified (1 Cor. 7:14).
In marriage, there should be not only physical, but also spiritual unity. The latter is not possible with the difference in confession. A non-Orthodox spouse can greatly influence the spiritual life of an Orthodox, and this, of course, affects children as well. Statistics show that the lack of spiritual unity has a detrimental effect on family harmony, as a result of which the percentage of divorces from mixed marriages is especially high. Likewise, statistics show that mixed marriages lead to indifferent offspring and often a complete loss of faith. However, the rule allows a mixed marriage to be preserved when one of the spouses converts to Orthodoxy. The modern practice of all Orthodox Churches is more forgiving and allows mixed marriage with Christians of some confessions, when they express their intention to accept Orthodoxy (14 Ave. 4 Omn.) And when they promise to bring up children in Orthodox Faith... Wed Laod. 10, 31; Karf. thirty.
73. Since the Life-giving Cross has shown us salvation, then it is fitting for us to use every diligence, may all honor be given to that through which we are saved from the ancient fall. Therefore, bringing him worship by thought, word, and feeling, we command: the image of the Cross, traced by some on the earth, should be completely ironed out, so that the sign of our victory would not be offended by the trampling of those who walk. And so from now on we command to excommunicate those who trace the image of the Cross on the earth.
74. One should not, in places dedicated to the Lord, or in churches, have the so-called meals of brotherly love, and there is one inside the church, and the bed should be laid. Those who dare to do this, or let them cease, or let them be excommunicated.
Wed 6 Vse. 76; Laod. 28; Karf. 51.
75. We wish that those who come to the church for singing do not use outrageous screams, do not force an unnatural scream out of themselves, and do not introduce anything incongruous and unusual for the church, but with great attention and tenderness bring psalm songs to God, who divines the hidden things. For the sacred Word taught the children of Israel to be reverent (Lev.15: 31).
In this rule, it is important to instruct the singers in the church to do it reverently. Already Zonara, that is, in the centuries of Byzantium, in the interpretation of this rule, complained that something pretentious and theatrical was introduced into church singing. This is all the more often encountered today and requires correction and constant concern of the church authorities to eliminate this phenomenon. Wed Laod. 15.
76. No one should inside the sacred fences a tavern, or supply various food, or make other purchases, while maintaining reverence for the churches. For our Savior and God, teaching us by his life in the flesh, commanded us not to create in His Father's house with the house of purchase. He scattered pennies on the people of the Penyazhniki, and expelled those who made the holy temple into a worldly place. Therefore, if anyone is convicted of this crime, let him be excommunicated.
Wed 6 Vse. 74 and 97.
77. Clergymen or clergymen or monks should not wash in the bathhouse, together with their wives, or even any lay Christian. For this is the first reproach from the Gentiles. If anyone is convicted of this: then the cleric will be cast out, and the layman will be excommunicated.
Wed Laod. thirty.
78. Those preparing for baptism must learn the faith, and on the fifth day of the week, make a vow to the bishop or elders.
Wed 6 Vse. 96; Laod. 46.
79. Divine birth from the Virgin, as a seedless one, confessing painless, and preaching this to all statues, we subject those who create out of ignorance to correction, something that is inappropriate. Someone else, on the day of the Holy Nativity of Christ our God, are seen as preparing bread baked and passing on to each other, as if in honor of the birth diseases of the all-blameless Virgin Mother: then we determine: let the faithful do nothing of the kind. For this is not an honor to the Virgin, more than mind and word, who gave birth to the incongruous Word in the flesh, if her ineffable birth is determined and represented by the example of the usual and peculiar birth. If from now on there will be someone doing this: then the cleric will be expelled, and the layman will be excommunicated.
80. If anyone, a bishop or a presbyter, or a deacon, or someone from the clergy, or a layman, having no urgent need or obstacle, by which he would be removed from his church for a long time, but being in the city, on three Sundays in continuation three weeks, will not come to the church meeting: then the cleric will be expelled from the clergy, and the layman will be excommunicated.
Wed Sardicus. eleven.
81. We have learned before that in some countries, in the trisagion song after the words: Holy Immortal, as an addition, they proclaim: crucify us, have mercy on us; but this ancient holy fathers, as alien to piety, were rejected from sowing songs, bought with a lawless heretic, the innovator of these words, then we, too, piously ordained by our holy fathers, affirming, according to the present definition, such a word in the church of those who accept or in any other way mixing with the trisagion song, we anathematize. And if the violator of the decree is a sacred rite, then we command to expose him from sacred dignity, if a layman or a monk - to excommunicate him from church communion.
This rule, as well as several other 6 Universe rules. Cathedral (32, 33, 56 and 99), directed against the Armenians.
82. On some honest icons, the Finger of the Forerunner depicts the shown lamb, which is adopted in the image of grace, through the law showing us the true lamb - Christ our God. Honoring the ancient images and canopies, devoted to the Church, as signs and designs of truth, we prefer grace and truth, accepting it as the fulfillment of the Law. For this reason, so that the perfect can be represented to the eyes of all by the art of painting, we command from now on the image of the lamb that takes away the sins of the world, Christ our God, on icons to represent human nature, instead of the old lamb; through this, contemplating the humility of God the Word, we are brought to the remembrance of His life in the flesh, His sufferings and saving deaths, and in this way the redemption of the world accomplished.
83. Let no one teach the bodies of the dead the Eucharist. For it is written: take, eat (Matt. 26:26). But they cannot accept the bodies of the dead, nor can they eat.
Wed Karf. 26.
84. Following the canonical decrees of the fathers, we also define babies: every time worthy witnesses are not found, who undoubtedly claim that they are baptized, and when they themselves, from an early age, cannot give the required answer about the sacrament given to them, they must baptize them without any bewilderment. : Yes, such a misunderstanding will not deprive them of their cleansing with a fraction of the shrine.
This rule is almost word for word repeats 83 ave. Of the Carthaginian Council. The rules prohibit repeated baptism, but even in cases where there is no completely reliable evidence that the infant was baptized, the Council finds it preferable to eliminate doubt by baptizing him, so that a misunderstanding does not leave him unbaptized at all.
85. We have received from Scripture that with two or three witnesses every word will become (Deut. 19:15). Therefore, we determine: yes, the slaves who are released from their masters to freedom, receive this advantage with three witnesses who, by their presence, will give liberation legitimacy and communicate the credibility of what has been done.
86. Those who, for the destruction of souls, collect and contain harlots, if they are clergy, we determine to excommunicate and vomit; if the laity - to excommunicate.
87. The wife who left her husband, if she goes for another, is an adulteress, according to the holy and divine Basil, who very decently from the prophecy of Jeremiah brought this: if the wife is to another husband, she will not return to her husband, but will be defiled by defilement (Jeremiah 3: 1) ... And packs: keep the adulteress, you are foolish and wicked (Proverbs 18:23). If it will be discerned that she has left her husband without guilt, then he is worthy of leniency, and she is worthy of penance. Condescension will be shown to him in that he be in communion with the Church. But he who leaves his lawfully mated wife and whoever consumes another, according to the word of the Lord (Luke 16:18), is guilty of the judgment of adultery. It was ordained by the rules of our fathers: to be like that for a year in the category of those who weep, for two years listening to the reading of the Scriptures, for three years in falling down, and in the seventh to stand with the faithful, and thus be worthy of communion if they repent with tears.
The Church protects the holiness and indissolubility of marriage, but the betrayal of one spouse to another destroys marriage. The canons, however, do not provide for the order of divorce. In the Byzantine Empire, this issue was regulated by civil laws. In 331, the Imp. Constantine issued, in agreement with the bishops, a law limiting divorce, which until then was very easy and possible by mutual agreement. According to this law, divorce was allowed on the basis of adultery and crimes that entailed the death penalty or indefinite hard labor for one of the spouses. After many changes, Justinian in the novella of 542, in addition to these reasons for divorce, introduced others: when there are no physical conditions for marriage, and when the spouses decide to devote themselves to monastic life. Currently, each Orthodox Church has its own divorce laws. The current reasons for the dissolution of the marriage union consecrated by the Church in the Russian Church were established by the All-Russian Church Council of 1917-18.
Wed Ap. 48; 6 Vse. 93; Karf. 115; Vasily Vel. 9, 21, 35 and 48.
88. No one introduces any animal into the sacred temple: unless someone traveling, embarrassed by the greatest extreme, and deprived of a home and hotel, would stop in such a temple. Because the animal, not being introduced into the fence, would sometimes perish, and he himself, having lost the animal, and therefore deprived of the opportunity to continue the journey, would be subject to the danger of life. For we know that the sabbath of man has come (Mark 2:27); and therefore, by all means, care must be taken for the salvation and safety of man. If someone is discerned, according to the above, who unnecessarily introduces the animal into the temple: then the cleric will be expelled, and the layman will be excommunicated.
89. Faithful days of saving suffering, in fasting and prayer and in contrition of heart, those who accompany them should stop fasting in the middle hours of the night after great sabbath, because the Divine Evangelists Matthew and Luke, the first with utterances: on Saturday evening (Matt. 28: 1), and the second, with utterances: very early (Luke 24: 1), depict us a deep night.
The question of when the resurrection of the Lord took place, and when it is necessary to end the fast of Holy Week is discussed in detail in Canon 1 of St. Dionysius, Archbishop. Alexandria.
90. From our God-bearing fathers it has been canonically transmitted to us not to kneel on Sundays, for the sake of the honor of the resurrection of Christ. Therefore, let us not be in the dark as to how to observe this, we clearly show the faithful that on Saturday, upon the evening entrance of the clergy to the altar, according to the accepted custom, no one kneels down until the next Sunday evening, on which, upon entering the lamp time, kneeling down, in this way we send prayers to the Lord. For the night after Saturday received the forerunner of the resurrection of our Savior; From now on, spiritually, we begin songs, and we bring the holiday from darkness to light, so that from now on we celebrate the resurrection all night and day.
The Seventh Ecumenical Council repeats the instruction 20 Ave. 1 Obs. Council on the noncompliance of kneeling on Sundays, explaining exactly when it is necessary to stop them. A detailed explanation of this at 91 is right. St. Basil the Great.
91. The wives who give medicine, produce prematurity of the fetus in the womb, and who accept poison, killing the fetus, we subject the murderer to penance.
Wed Ankh. 21; St. Basil Vel. 2 and 8.
92. Those who kidnap their wives under the guise of marriage, or assist or help the kidnappers, was defined by the Holy Council: if they are clergy, to overthrow them from the level of them; if they are laymen, anathematize.
Wed 4 Vsell. 27 and parallel rules.
93. The wife of a husband who has gone away and is in obscurity, before certifying his death to another, cohabiting, commits adultery. Likewise, the wives of warriors, who marry during the unknown of their husbands, are subject to the same reasoning; similarly, those who marry due to the removal of their husbands to foreign countries, without waiting for their return. But here you can have some condescension to such an act, for the sake of greater likelihood of the death of her husband. And she who entered, through ignorance, into marriage with her wife, who was left for a while, and then, because of the return of her first wife to him, was abandoned, although she committed fornication, but out of ignorance: therefore, marriage is not forbidden to her. But it's better if the tacos remain. If, for some time, the warrior whose wife, due to his long absence, was combined with another husband, for a certain time: paki let him take his wife if he wants; moreover, let her ignorance be forgiven, as well as her husband, who cohabited with her in her second marriage.
This rule serves as the basis for divorce due to an unknown absence, however, this absence is taken as a presumption of the likelihood of the death of the absent spouse. Wed Vasily Vel. 31.
94. Those who swear by pagan oaths are subject to the rule of penance: and we define excommunication as such.
St. Basil Vel. 10, 17, 28, 29, 81 and 82.
95. Those who join Orthodoxy and the honor of those who are being saved from heretics are acceptable, according to the following rank and custom: Arians, Macedonians, Navatians who call themselves pure and the best, fourteen diaries, or tetradites, and Appolinarians, when they give manuscripts and curse any heresy that does not philosophize, as the Holy of God, the Catholic and Apostolic Church, is acceptable, sealing, that is, anointing with holy peace firstly on the forehead, then the eyes and nostrils, and lips, and ears, and sealing them with the verb: the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. And about those who were peacocks, then who came to the Catholic Church, it was decided: to re-baptize them without fail. Eunomian, baptized by a single immersion, and Montanists, here called Phrigs, and Sabellians, who hold the opinion of filialism, and other intolerant creators, and all other heretics (for there are many of them here, especially those who leave the Galatian country): all of them want to be joined to Orthodoxy, acceptable as pagans. On the first day we make them Christians, on the second we make them catechumens, then on the third we conjure them, with a threefold breath in our face and ears: and so we announce them and make them stay in church and listen to the scriptures, and then we baptize them. The same is true of the Manichaeans, Valentinians, Marcionites and similar heretics. Nestorians, however, must write manuscripts and anathematize their heresy, and Nestorius, and Eutychus, and Dioscorus, and Severus, and other leaders of such heresies, and their associates, and all the heresies shown above: and then may they receive Holy Communion.
The heretics mentioned here are given information in the explanations to the rules: 1 Obs. 8 and 19; 2 Vsell. 1 and 7. The Manicheans, Valentinians and Marcionites mentioned in this rule are Gnostics, heretics of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The Eutychians were Monophysites. Eutychians, Nestorians and Severians distorted the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. According to the decree of the Council of Constantinople in 1756, all Western heretics, including Roman Catholics, were baptized in the Greek Churches, which, incidentally, was usually in some places even before this council determination, and has been preserved to this day.
96. Those who were clothed in Christ with baptism took a vow to imitate His life. For the sake of hair on the head, to the detriment of those who see, who dispose and remove with artificial weaving, and thus the unapproved souls of those who seduce, we fatherly heal with decent penance, guiding them, like children, and teaching them to live chastely, but leaving the charm and vanity of the flesh, to the infallible and blessed life, the mind is constantly directed and they have a pure dwelling with fear, and by the purification of life, as much as possible, they approach God, and they adorn the inner person more than the outer person with virtues and good and blameless morals; and let them not carry in themselves any remnant of the depravity that came from the resistance. But if anyone does not act against this rule: let him be excommunicated.
97. Those who, either living with a wife or in any other way, recklessly convert sacred places into ordinary ones, and carelessly treat their surroundings and stay in them with such an disposition, we command to expel from the places catechumed at the holy temples. Whoever will not observe this, if there is a cleric, let him be thrown out; if he is a layman, let him be excommunicated.
“Sacred places in this rule designate not only temples, but also the premises adjacent to the temple, for according to Zonara's remarks in the interpretation of this rule no one can be“ so daring to live with his wife in the temple itself. ”
98. A wife, betrothed to another, who takes into marriage, while the betrothed is still alive, let him be subject to the guilt of adultery.
Betrothal before marriage, as a mutual promise of a man and a woman to enter into marriage, also existed in Roman law, but it did not legally bind anyone. The Church sees in the betrothal a morally obligatory act that already binds the future spouses, for, as Bp. Nicodemus, "it already has a necessary condition that constitutes the essence of marriage, namely, mutual consent to the marriage life of the betrothed." Bearing in mind cases such as the one about which the present canon speaks, the Church now does not perform the betrothal long before marriage, but does it just before the wedding.
99. In the Armenian country, as we have seen, it also happens that some, having cooked parts of the meat, bring the parts inside the sacred altars, and divide them to the priests, according to the Jewish custom. Therefore, observing the purity of the church, we determine: let none of the priests be allowed to take the separated parts of meat from those who bring them, but let them be content with what the bringer wants to give, and such an offering should be outside the church. But if someone does not do this, let him be excommunicated.
100. Let your eyes see, and by all keeping, keep your spirit (Proverbs 4: 23–25), wisdom bequeaths: for bodily feelings conveniently bring their impressions into the soul. Therefore, images on boards, or on anything other than imagined, charming sight, corrupting the mind, and producing flames of impure pleasures, we do not allow from now on, in any way, to write. If anyone dares to do this, let him be excommunicated.
This rule is directed against drawing pornographic pictures, but thereby it indicates that it is sinful to contemplate them.
101. Man, created in the image of God, the Divine Apostle publicly calls the body of Christ and the temple. For he was placed above every sensible creature, he was made worthy by the salutary sufferings of heavenly dignity, and he who eats and drinks Christ, is constantly transformed into eternal life, and sanctifies his soul and body through the communion of Divine grace. Therefore, if anyone wants, during the Liturgy, he will commune of the most pure body, and be one with him through the sacrament: let him fold his hands into the image of the cross, and so he dulls, and let him receive the communion of grace. For from gold, or some other substance, instead of a hand, we do not approve of certain receptacles for accepting the Divine gift and, through these pure communion, are worthy of, as preferring to God's image a soulless substance and subordinate to human hands. If anyone is discerned, the one who gives the Holy Communion to those who bring such receptacles, let this one and the one bringing them also be excommunicated.
102. Those who have received the power to decide and knit from God should consider the quality of sin, and the readiness of the sinner to convert, and so use a decent medical treatment, so that, without observing measures in both, they do not lose the salvation of the one who is sick. For the ailment of sin is not the same, but it is different and diverse and produces many branches of harm, from which evil pours abundantly, until it is stopped by the power of the one who heals. Why is the spiritual art of medicine for the one who manifests first to examine the disposition of the sinner and observe whether he is heading towards health, or, on the contrary, attracts illness to himself by his own morals, and how, meanwhile, he institutes his behavior; and if he does not resist the doctor, and heals the wound of the soul through the application of prescribed medications: in such a case, mercy is to be measured on him at his worth. For God, and who has accepted the shepherd's guidance, has all the care of returning the lost sheep and healing the wounded by the serpent. One must not drive along the rapids of despair, nor let go of the reins to weaken life and neglect: but must certainly, in which either way: either by means of harsh and astringent, or by means of softer and lighter medical means, resist the disease, and strive to heal the wound; and experience the fruits of repentance, and wisely manage a person called to the heavenly enlightenment. It is fitting for us to be aware of both - both decent to the jealousy of the repentant, and required by custom: for those who do not accept the perfection of repentance, follow the faithful image, as Saint Basil teaches us.
Wed 1 Vsell. 12; Ankir. 2, 5 and 7; Afanasy Vel. Epistle to Rufinian; Vasily Vel. 2, 3, 74, 75, 84 and 85; Gregory Nissk. 4, 5, 6 and 7.