Canons of the First Council of Toledo

Contents

1. 0Opening of the first council of Toledo: nineteen bishops resolve to keep the decrees of Nicaea in ordaining clergy.
2. 1Married deacons who live continently may serve, but deacons and presbyters who had relations with their wives (even before the Lusitanian prohibition) may not be promoted.
3. 2Those who have done public penance are not to be ordained, except in need as door-keepers or readers.
4. 3A reader who marries a widow may rise no higher than reader or subdeacon.
5. 4A subdeacon who remarries after his wife's death is reduced to door-keeper or reader; one who marries a third time is suspended for two years and then restored only as a layman.
6. 5Clergy who neglect the daily eucharist at their church cease to be counted clergy unless they make amends.
7. 6Virgins dedicated to God are not to keep company with confessors or unrelated laymen, or visit readers' houses, except in respectable company.
8. 7Clerics whose wives have sinned may confine and discipline them, short of killing them, and are not to eat with them until they repent.
9. 8One who served in the army or the imperial service after baptism may not become a deacon.
10. 9Women vowed to God or widows may not hold services at home without clergy, and the evening office is to be held only in church or with clergy present.
11. 10Men bound to a household by contract or birth may be ordained only if of proven life and with their patrons' consent.
12. 11A powerful man who robs a cleric or poor person and ignores the bishop's summons is excommunicated throughout the province until he makes restitution.
13. 12Clergy may not leave their bishop for another, and those who join the excommunicated share their condemnation.
14. 13Those who attend church but never receive communion are to be admonished either to do penance or to communicate, on pain of exclusion.
15. 14Anyone who receives the eucharist without consuming it is expelled as sacrilegious.
16. 15Clergy and religious must shun the excommunicated, on pain of excommunication themselves.
17. 16A dedicated virgin who sins does ten years' penance; if she has married, she is admitted to penance only if she lives chastely or after her husband is gone.
18. 17A married man with a concubine is excluded from communion, but an unmarried man faithful to one concubine is not.
19. 18The widow of a bishop, presbyter or deacon who remarries is shunned and receives communion only at death.
20. 19A dedicated daughter of clergy who marries is excluded until her husband dies and she does penance; parents who receive her are excluded too.
21. 20Bishops may not let presbyters make the chrism; the subscriptions follow, then the heading and creed of the later Rule of Faith against the Priscillianists.
22. 21.1Anathema on those who deny that God made the world.
23. 21.2Anathema on those who identify the Father with the Son or the Spirit.
24. 21.3Anathema on those who identify the Son with the Father or the Spirit.
25. 21.4Anathema on those who identify the Spirit with the Father or the Son.
26. 21.5Anathema on those who deny Christ a human soul.
27. 21.6Anathema on those who say Christ could not be born.
28. 21.7Anathema on those who say Christ's divinity could change or suffer.
29. 21.8Anathema on those who separate the God of the Old Testament from the God of the Gospels.
30. 21.9Anathema on those who say the world was made by another God than the God of Genesis.
31. 21.10Anathema on those who deny the resurrection of the body.
32. 21.11Anathema on those who say the human soul is part of God.
33. 21.12Anathema on those who give authority to scriptures not received by the catholic church.
34. 21.13Anathema on those who say Christ's divinity and flesh are one nature.
35. 21.14Anathema on those who say something divine exists beyond the Trinity.
36. 21.15Anathema on belief in astrology.
37. 21.16Anathema on those who condemn lawful marriage.
38. 21.17Anathema on those who condemn meat as accursed rather than abstaining from it for discipline.
39. 21.18Anathema on followers of Priscillian, including those who practice baptism contrary to the see of Peter.