Sophia Scriptura

Canons of the Council of Gangra

Concilium Gangrense · Κανόνες τῆς ἐν Γάγγρᾳ συνόδου

Read the whole work on one page

Contents

  1. 1Anyone who condemns marriage or says a faithful married woman cannot enter the kingdom is anathematized.
  2. 2Anyone who condemns the eating of meat (apart from blood, idol offerings and strangled animals) as a bar to salvation is anathematized.
  3. 3Anyone who teaches slaves to leave their masters on religious grounds is anathematized.
  4. 4Anyone who refuses communion from a married presbyter is anathematized.
  5. 5Anyone who teaches contempt for the church building and its assemblies is anathematized.
  6. 6Anyone who holds separate church services without a presbyter authorized by the bishop is anathematized.
  7. 7Anyone who receives or distributes church offerings without the bishop's consent is anathematized.
  8. 8Both giver and receiver of offerings made apart from the bishop or his steward are anathematized.
  9. 9Anyone who chooses virginity out of contempt for marriage rather than for virginity's own goodness is anathematized.
  10. 10Virgins who exalt themselves over married people are anathematized.
  11. 11Anyone who scorns the church's love-feasts and refuses to attend them is anathematized.
  12. 12Ascetics who wear a special cloak and condemn those in ordinary dress are anathematized.
  13. 13Women who adopt men's dress on ascetic grounds are anathematized.
  14. 14A wife who leaves her husband out of abhorrence of marriage is anathematized.
  15. 15Parents who abandon their children on ascetic grounds are anathematized.
  16. 16Children who abandon their parents, especially believing parents, on religious grounds are anathematized.
  17. 17Women who cut off their hair on ascetic grounds are anathematized.
  18. 18Anyone who fasts on Sunday on ascetic grounds is anathematized.
  19. 19Ascetics who, without bodily need, disregard the church's common fasts out of pride are anathematized.
  20. 20Anyone who scorns the gatherings and services at the martyrs' shrines is anathematized.
  21. 21The synod's epilogue explains that it condemns not true asceticism but its prideful abuse, and affirms virginity, continence, marriage, rightly used wealth, the churches, and the church's traditions.

About this work

Author
Anonymous
Attribution
authentic · Local council against the ascetic excesses of Eustathius of Sebaste and his followers.
Standing
Received by the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Local council whose canons were received into Eastern canon law (Trullo, canon 2) and into the Latin collection of Dionysius Exiguus.
Date
ca. 340–360 (approximate) · The date is disputed (ca. 340 on the Pedalion; some place it as late as ca. 355–360). Ref 21 in the Pedalion is the epilogue, not a canon. The synodal letter of the council is not in the Pedalion text and is not staged.
Written at
Gangra, Paphlagonia
Language
Greek
Genre
canon/council
Reference system
canons 1–20 plus the epilogue (Pedalion 21)
SBL abbreviation
Conc. Gangr.Not yet checked
Text from
Nikodemos the Hagiorite and Agapios, eds., Πηδάλιον τῆς νοητῆς νηὸς τῆς μιᾶς ἁγίας καθολικῆς καὶ ἀποστολικῆς τῶν ὀρθοδόξων ἐκκλησίας (Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1800; reprinted Athens and Zakynthos), text as transcribed on Greek Wikisource (raw wikitext, canon text only) (Printed edition in the public domain; Wikisource transcription CC BY-SA)
Critical editions
Hermann Theodor Bruns, ed., Canones apostolorum et conciliorum veterum selecti, vol. 1 (Berlin: Reimer, 1839); Friedrich Lauchert, ed., Die Kanones der wichtigsten altkirchlichen Concilien (Freiburg i. B.: Mohr, 1896); Périclès-Pierre Joannou, ed., Discipline générale antique (IVe-IXe s.), vol. 1.2 (Grottaferrata: Tipografia Italo-Orientale, 1962) (cited, not reproduced)