Sophia Scriptura

Canons of the Council of Arles (314)

Concilium Arelatense primum

Read the whole work on one page

Contents

  1. 0The bishops gathered at Arles, headed by Marinus, send their decisions to Silvester, bishop of Rome.
  2. 1Easter is to be kept on one day everywhere, and the bishop of Rome is to announce the date by letter.
  3. 2Clergy are to stay in the places where they were ordained.
  4. 3Soldiers who throw away their arms in time of peace are excluded from communion.
  5. 4Christian charioteers are excluded from communion while they race.
  6. 5Christian actors are excluded from communion while they act.
  7. 6Sick people who wish to become Christians are to receive the laying on of hands.
  8. 7Christian governors and officials keep communion under the care of the local bishop, unless they act against Christian discipline.
  9. 8Converts from heresy who were baptized in the name of the Trinity receive only the laying on of hands; otherwise they are baptized.
  10. 9Letters from confessors are to be replaced by ordinary letters of communion.
  11. 10Young Christian men whose wives commit adultery are to be counseled, as far as possible, not to remarry while their wives live.
  12. 11Christian girls who marry pagans are excluded from communion for a time.
  13. 12Clergy who lend at interest are excluded from communion.
  14. 13Clergy proved by public records to have surrendered Scriptures, church vessels, or names in persecution are deposed, but the ordinations they performed remain valid.
  15. 14False accusers of their brothers are excluded from communion until death.
  16. 15Deacons must not offer the eucharist.
  17. 16Those excluded from communion must be readmitted in the same place where they were excluded.
  18. 17No bishop is to encroach on another.
  19. 18City deacons must defer to the presbyters.
  20. 19Visiting bishops are to be invited to celebrate the eucharist.
  21. 20No bishop may ordain another alone: seven bishops should take part, and never fewer than three.
  22. 21Presbyters and deacons who leave their own churches for others are to be deposed.
  23. 22Apostates who ask for communion only when ill are refused it unless they recover and show real repentance.

About this work

Author
Anonymous
Attribution
authentic · Canons of the council of bishops summoned by Constantine to Arles, with the synodal letter to Pope Silvester (the letter's heading names Marinus, bishop of Arles). No single author.
Standing
A local council, not counted here as received by the Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant traditions as a whole. Anonymous or pseudonymous work read and used in the church of its time.
Date
1 August 314 (probable) · The Donatist controversy was heard here in August 314; the date is stated in Constantine's summons preserved by Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 10.5.
Written at
Arles, Gaul
Addressed to
Silvester, bishop of Rome
Language
Latin
Genre
canon/council
Reference system
0 = the synodal letter to Silvester; canons 1–22. The Latin summary heading printed before each canon in the editions is not part of the canon and is not published.
SBL abbreviation
Conc. Arel.Not yet checked
Text from
Friedrich Lauchert, ed., Die Kanones der wichtigsten altkirchlichen Concilien nebst den apostolischen Kanones (Freiburg i. B. and Leipzig: Mohr, 1896), 26–29 (compared with H. T. Bruns, Canones apostolorum et conciliorum veterum selecti, vol. 2 [Berlin: Reimer, 1839], 107–110) (Printed edition in the public domain)
Critical editions
Charles Munier, ed., Concilia Galliae A. 314–A. 506, CCSL 148 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1963); Hermann Theodor Bruns, ed., Canones apostolorum et conciliorum veterum selecti, vol. 2 (Berlin: Reimer, 1839) (cited, not reproduced)