Canon XIV.
It
is decreed that among the
clergy, presbyters and deacons who abstain from flesh shall taste of
it, and afterwards, if they shall so please, may abstain. But if
they disdain it, and will not even eat herbs served with flesh, but
disobey the canon, let them be removed from their order.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon
XIV.
A priest who is an abstainer from flesh, let him
merely taste it and so let him abstain. But if he will not taste
even the vegetables cooked with the meat let him be deposed
(
πεπάυσθω
).
There is a serious dispute about the reading of the
Greek text. I have followed Routh, who, relying on three
mss.
the
Collectio
of John of Antioch
and the Latin versions, reads
εἰ δὲ
βδελύσσοιντο
instead of the
εἰ
δὲ
βούλοιντο
of the
ordinary text, which as Bp. Beveridge had pointed out before has no
meaning unless a
μὴ
be
introduced.
Zonaras points out that the canon chiefly refers to the
Love feasts.
I cannot agree with Hefele in his translation of the
last clause. He makes the reference to “this present
canon,” I think it is clearly to the 53 (52) of the so-called
Canons of the Apostles,
τῷ
κανόνι
“the well-known
Canon.”