[
After
Canon XX
.]
Canon XII. (
Of the Latin
Texts
.)
Bishop
Hosius
said: But some discretion is here requisite,
brethren dearly beloved, in case some should come to those cities which
are on the highway still ignorant of what has been decreed in the
council. The bishop of such a city ought therefore to admonish
him [a bishop so arriving], and instruct him to send his deacon from
that place. Upon this admonition he must, however, himself return
to his diocese.
Notes.
Van Espen.
This proposition of Hosius in the Roman Codex is joined
as an appendix to the preceding canon. The Greeks omit it
altogether, very likely either because it seemed to be a proposition of
Hosius’s rather than a synodal canon, for no adoption by the
synod is recorded: or else because, even if it were a decree, it
was only of temporary character, that is to say, until the canons had
been sufficiently promulgated, and therefore some on the ground of
ignorance might be exempt from the threatened penalties.