Canon XV.
On
account of the great
disturbance and discords that occur, it is decreed that the custom
prevailing in certain places contrary to the Canon, must wholly be done
away; so that neither bishop, presbyter, nor deacon shall pass from
city to city. And if any one, after this decree of the holy and
great Synod, shall attempt any such thing, or continue in any such
course, his proceedings shall be utterly void, and he shall be restored
to the Church for which he was ordained bishop or presbyter.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon XV.
Neither bishop, presbyter, nor deacon shall pass from
city to city. But they shall be sent back, should they attempt to
do so, to the Churches in which they were ordained.
Hefele.
The translation of a bishop, priest, or deacon from one
church to another, had already been forbidden in the primitive
Church. Nevertheless, several translations had taken place, and
even at the Council of Nice several eminent men were present who had
left their first bishoprics to take others: thus Eusebius, Bishop
of Nicomedia, had been before Bishop of Berytus; Eustathius, Bishop of
Antioch, had been before Bishop of Berrhœa in Syria. The
Council of Nice thought it necessary to
forbid in future these translations, and to
declare them invalid. The chief reason of this prohibition was
found in the irregularities and disputes occasioned by such change of
sees; but even if such practical difficulties had not arisen, the whole
doctrinal idea, so to speak, of the relationship between a cleric and
the church to which he had been ordained, namely, the contracting of a
mystical marriage between them, would be opposed to any translation or
change. In 341 the Synod of Antioch renewed, in its twenty-first
canon, the prohibition passed by the Council of Nice; but the interest
of the Church often rendered it necessary to make exceptions, as
happened in the case of St. Chrysostom. These exceptional cases
increased almost immediately after the holding of the Council of Nice,
so that in 382, St. Gregory of Nazianzum considered this law among
those which had long been abrogated by custom. It was more
strictly observed in the Latin Church; and even Gregory’s
contemporary, Pope Damasus, declared himself decidedly in favour of the
rule of Nice.
This canon is found in the
Corpus Juris Canonici
.
Decretum
, Pars II. Causa VII, Q. 1, c. xix.