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The Riddle of the 13th Canon of Ancyra

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Cyril C. Richardson
Cyril C. Richardson
Affiliation:
Union Theological Seminary
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Extract

“It is not permitted that country bishops should ordain presbyters or deacons, nor, moreover, may city presbyters do so, without the written permission of the bishop in each parish.” This canon, which is still on occasion cited to uphold presbyterian ordination in the early church,1 so bristles with difficulties, that it is perhaps advisable to refrain from using it to prove anything.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 1947 , pp. 32 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1947

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References

1 e. g. Lowrie, W., Ministers of Christ, 1946, 52Google Scholar, and see Lightfoot, J. B., Commentary on Philippians, 1896, 232–3Google Scholar (“Dissertation on the Christian Ministry”).

2 Turner, C. H., Ecclesiae Orientalis Monumenta Juris Antiquissima, 1907, II. I. 84.Google Scholar

3 e.g. Contra Apionem I, 14; 196; 286; 300; II, 289; Wars II, 355; 371; III, 369; cf. Ep. ad Diognetum IV, 1. Occasionally the sense of contrast is preserved in the alla, so Antiq. 19, 146, “yet forsooth.” In dialogue, however, afla men has some interesting nuances: e.g. Plato, Theat. 187A, where it introduces a point not disputed, so Josephus, , Wars II, 195; VI, 332Google Scholar. Again, it has the force of “nay, on the contrary”, in Wars I, 631.

4 Perhaps by assuming the right of confirmation (consignare), of which Ambrosiaster speaks in Corn, on Eph. 4:12.

5 e.g. Aries, Canon 15.

6 A few alleged cases have been sufficiently answered by C. Gore, op. cit. Regarding the apparent difficulty in the Canons of Hippoiytus, where in Canon 2 it is said that “one of the bishops and presbyters” is Chosen to lay hands on the new bishop and say the Consecration prayer, it must be recalled that Canon 4 flatly contradicts this. Canon 2 looks like a careless piece of writing, of which there are many in these canons. The compiler is dependent upon the Apostolic Tradition for this section about the election of a bishop, but he has freely rewritten his source. In the earlier part of the canon he has neglected the two references to the presbytery in A. T. 2. 2 and 3, and seems to have introduced this theme in the wrong place. Can it be that, as an after-thought, he realized his omission of the presbyters, and put them in here rather to emphasire their presence, than to insinuate they might ordain? He does not say, “One of the bishops or presbyters”; and he is very- clear in canon 4 about the bishop's unique prerogative.

7 Is this not the sense of tës times, which is clearly contrasted with kai tën timën tou presbyteriou, in the next sentence? Cf. tës timës tou onoinatos of Nicaea 8, in reference to the episcopal title.