Canons of the Council of Sardica (Latin)

Contents

1. 1Osius proposes, and all agree, that a bishop who moves from his own city to another be denied even lay communion.
2. 2A bishop who claims a popular invitation to justify his transfer is refused lay communion even at death.
3. 3Bishops are not to intrude into other provinces; a condemned bishop's case may be referred to Julius of Rome, who decides whether it is retried and appoints the judges.
4. 4When a deposed bishop appeals to Rome, no successor is to be ordained until the Roman bishop has decided the case.
5. 5If the only remaining bishop of a province neglects to ordain a bishop the people request, bishops from the neighboring province may do so.
6. 6Bishops are not to be ordained for villages or small towns that one presbyter can serve, but only for cities that have had bishops or are populous enough to deserve one.
7. 7A deposed bishop may appeal to the bishop of Rome, who may have neighboring bishops rehear the case or send a presbyter to judge with them.
8. 8Bishops are not to go to the imperial court unless summoned by the emperor, though they may intercede for the oppressed and for the condemned who seek the church's mercy.
9. 9Bishops are to send petitions to court through deacons, via the metropolitan with letters of commendation, or through friends at the palace.
10. 10Petitions brought to Rome are first examined by its bishop; Alypius adds that bishops have no need to go to court for self-interested requests.
11. 11Bishops who go to court out of ambition lose their rank; bishops on the highways are to check travelling bishops and refuse communion to those going without summons.
12. 12A bishop who travels toward court unaware of the new rule is to be told to send his deacon instead and go home.
13. 13A rich man, lawyer or official chosen as bishop must first pass over time through the grades of reader, deacon and presbyter, since Paul forbids ordaining a neophyte.
14. 14A visiting bishop must not stay long and undermine the local bishop by frequent preaching, and no bishop may be absent from his church more than three weeks without grave cause.
15. 15Bishops with estates elsewhere may visit them to manage the harvest for up to three weeks, attending church in a nearby town on Sundays.
16. 16A bishop must not admit to communion a cleric whom he knows his own bishop has excommunicated.
17. 17A presbyter or deacon expelled by an angry bishop may appeal to neighboring bishops, but no one may admit him to communion before the hearing.
18. 18No bishop may entice another bishop's cleric away and ordain him in his own diocese.
19. 19Ordaining another bishop's cleric without his consent is invalid.
20. 20The limits on bishops' absence apply also to presbyters and deacons who linger in Thessalonica.
21. 21A bishop unjustly expelled for his faith may stay in another city until he can return; the synod closes by committing its decrees to the whole church.