Creed and Canons of the Council of Nicaea (325)

Contents

1. 0The creed of the Council of Nicaea confesses the Son as true God of the same essence as the Father and condemns the Arian formulas.
2. 1Men who castrate themselves may not be or remain clergy, but those castrated by others or for medical reasons may.
3. 2Newly baptized converts are not to be ordained at once, as Paul's rule against recent converts requires.
4. 3Clergy may not keep unrelated women in their houses, only close relatives above suspicion.
5. 4A bishop is to be ordained by at least three bishops of the province with the written consent of the rest, confirmed by the metropolitan.
6. 5Excommunications by one bishop are binding on others but are to be reviewed at provincial synods held twice a year.
7. 6The traditional authority of the bishops of Alexandria, Rome, and Antioch is confirmed, and no bishop may be made without the metropolitan's consent.
8. 7The bishop of Jerusalem is given a special honor, while the metropolitan see keeps its rank.
9. 8Novatianist clergy (the “Cathars”) who join the church keep their rank after the laying on of hands, if they accept the church's teaching on the remarried and the lapsed.
10. 9Men ordained presbyter without examination, or despite confessed sins, are not admitted by the canon.
11. 10Lapsed Christians who have been ordained are to be deposed when discovered.
12. 11Those who lapsed without compulsion under Licinius do twelve years of graded penance.
13. 12Christians who left the army for the faith but then bought their way back into it do long penance, which the bishop may shorten for the truly repentant.
14. 13The dying are never to be denied communion, though if they recover they return to their penance.
15. 14Catechumens who lapsed are hearers for three years before rejoining the catechumens.
16. 15Bishops, presbyters, and deacons may not move from one city's church to another.
17. 16Clergy who desert their own church are not to be received elsewhere, and a bishop may not ordain another bishop's cleric without consent.
18. 17Clergy who lend at interest, in any form, are to be deposed.
19. 18Deacons must not give communion to presbyters or receive it before bishops, and must keep their place below the presbyters.
20. 19Followers of Paul of Samosata who join the church must be rebaptized, and their clergy reordained if worthy.
21. 20No one is to kneel for prayer on Sundays or during the fifty days of Easter; prayers then are said standing.