The Commonitory of
the Same which Ammon Received on Account of Lycus.
Canon II.
Let [the priests] who have communicated with the Arians,
be retained or rejected, as the custom of every church is; but so, that
other orthodox [priests] be ordained, though the others continue.
As the orthodox bishops did in Thebais, so let it be in other
cities. They who were ordained by Bishop Apollo, and afterwards
communicated with the Arians, if they did it of their own accord, let
them be censured; but if they only did it in obedience to the bishop,
let them be continued; but if all the people abdicate them, others must
be ordained. And if Bistus the priest be found to have committed
uncleanness with a woman dismissed from her husband, let him not be
permitted to be a priest. But this is no prejudice to the bishop
who ordained him, if he did it ignorantly; since the Holy Synod
commands unworthy men to be ejected, though they be not convicted until
after ordination.
Canon III.
Let Bishop Apollo’s sentence against his priest
Sur prevail, though he has the liberty of being further heard.
Canon IV.
If Panuph the deacon married his brother’s
daughter before baptism, let him continue among the clergy, if she be
dead, and he had not to do with her after his baptism; but if he
married her, and cohabited with her while he was a communicant, let him
be ejected from the clergy, without prejudice to the bishop who
ordained him, if he did it ignorantly.
Canon V.
If it do evidently appear, that Jacob, while he was
reader, did commit fornication, and was ejected by the priests
(
πρεσβυτέρων
),
and yet afterwards ordained, let him be ejected, and not otherwise.
Canon VI.
That all in holy orders unanimously choose those who are
to be ordained, and then the bishop examine [them]; or that the bishop
ordain them in the midst of the church, all that are in holy orders
consenting, and the bishop with a loud voice asking the people, who are
then to be present, whether they can give their testimony [to the
parties to be ordained]; and that ordination be not performed in
private; if there be in the remote country, who while they were
communicants [with the Arians] communicated in their opinions, let them
not be ordained until they be examined by orthodox clergymen, in the
presence of the bishop, who is to charge the people, that there be no
running up and down in the middle of the church, or service.
Canon VII.
Let the clergymen distribute all that is offered by way
of sacrifice, after so much as was necessary has been consumed in the
Mysteries. Let not the catechumens taste of them, but clergymen
and communicants only.
606
Canon VIII.
One, Hierax, had delated a clergyman as guilty of
fornication. Bishop Apollo defended him. Theophilus orders
the matter to be examined.
Canon IX.
That an Œconomus be created, by the consent of all
that are in Holy Orders, with the concurrence of Bishop Apollo, that so
the goods of the Church be expended as they ought.
Canon X.
That the widows, poor, and travellers be not disturbed;
and that no one make a property of the goods of the Church.
606
Johnson gives this
note. “To eat the main of what was left, was not at all
inconsistent with reserving so much as was necessary for foreseen and
unforeseen emergencies.”