Canon XXIX.
It
is sacrilege to degrade a
bishop to the rank of a presbyter; but, if they are for just cause
removed from episcopal functions, neither ought they to have the
position of a Presbyter; and if they have been displaced without any
charge, they shall be restored to their episcopal dignity.
And Anatolius, the most reverend Archbishop of
Constantinople, said: If those who are alleged to have been
removed from the episcopal dignity to the order of presbyter, have
indeed been condemned for any sufficient causes, clearly they are not
worthy of the honour of a presbyter. But if they have been forced
down into the lower rank without just cause, they are worthy, if they
appear guiltless, to receive again both the dignity and priesthood of
the Episcopate.
And all the most reverend Bishops cried out:
The judgment of the Fathers is right. We all say
the same. The Fathers have righteously decided. Let the
sentence of the Archbishops prevail.
And the most magnificent and glorious judges said:
Let the pleasure of the Holy Synod be established for
all time.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon
XXIX.
He is sacrilegious who degrades a bishop to the rank of
a presbyter. For he that is guilty of crime is unworthy of the
priesthood. But he that was deposed without cause, let him be
[still] bishop.
What precedes and follows the so-called canon is
abbreviated from the
IV
th
Session of
the Council (L. and C.,
Conc
., Tom. IV., col. 550). I have
followed a usual Greek method of printing it.
Hefele.
This so-called canon is nothing but a verbal copy of a
passage from the minutes of the
fourth session in the matter of Photius of Tyre
and Eustathius of Berytus. Moreover, it does not possess the
peculiar form which we find in all the genuine canons of Chalcedon, and
in almost all ecclesiastical canons in general; on the contrary, there
adheres to it a portion of the debate, of which it is a fragment, in
which Anatolius is introduced as speaking. Besides it is wanting
in all the old Greek, as well as in the Latin collections of canons,
and in those of John of Antioch and of Photius, and has only been
appended to the twenty-eight genuine canons of Chalcedon from the fact
that a later transcriber thought fit to add to the genuine canons the
general and important principle contained in the place in question of
the fourth session. Accordingly, this so-called canon is
certainly an ecclesiastical rule declared at Chalcedon, and in so far a
κανών
,
but it was not added as a canon proper to the other twenty-eight by the
Synod.
From the Fourth Session of the same Holy Synod, having
reference to the matter of the Egyptian Bishops.
The most magnificent and glorious judges, and the whole
Senate, said: