Canons of the Council of Neocaesarea

Contents

1. 1A presbyter who marries after ordination is removed from his rank; one guilty of sexual sin is expelled and put to penance.
2. 2A woman who marries two brothers in turn is excluded until death, unless at death she promises to dissolve the marriage if she recovers.
3. 3Those married many times do the fixed penance, which may be shortened by their conduct and faith.
4. 4A man who intended adultery but did not commit it appears to have been saved by grace.
5. 5A catechumen who sins is moved down to the hearers, and expelled if he goes on sinning.
6. 6A pregnant woman may be baptized when she wishes, since her baptism does not extend to the unborn child.
7. 7A presbyter should not attend the wedding feast of a second marriage, since such a marriage requires penance.
8. 8A man whose wife was convicted of adultery cannot be ordained, and a cleric whose wife commits adultery must put her away or give up his ministry.
9. 9A presbyter who confesses a sexual sin committed before ordination may not celebrate the eucharist but keeps his other duties.
10. 10A deacon in the same case is reduced to the rank of an attendant.
11. 11No one is to be ordained presbyter before thirty, the age at which Christ was baptized and began to teach.
12. 12Someone baptized on a sickbed is not normally to be ordained presbyter, unless his later zeal and a lack of candidates justify it.
13. 13Country presbyters may not celebrate or give communion in the city church when city clergy are present.
14. 14Country bishops correspond to the Seventy and, honored for their care of the poor, may celebrate the eucharist.
15. 15A city should have seven deacons, however large, following the book of Acts.