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Council of Nicea I

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  • THE CANONS OF THE 318 HOLY FATHERS ASSEMBLED IN THE CITY OF NICE, IN BITHYNIA. CANON I.
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THE CANONS OF THE 318 HOLY FATHERS ASSEMBLED IN THE CITY OF NICE, IN BITHYNIA. CANON I. 
IF any one in sickness has been subjected by physicians to a surgical 
operation, or if he has been castrated by barbarians, let him remain 
among the clergy; but, if any one in sound health has castrated 
himself, it behoves that such an one, if[already] enrolled among the 
clergy, should cease[from his ministry], and that from henceforth no 
such person should be promoted. But, as it is evident that this is said 
of those who wilfully do the thing and presume to castrate themselves, 
so if any have been made eunuchs by barbarians, or by their masters, 
and should otherwise be found worthy, such men the Canon admits to 
the clergy.
 
NOTES.
 
ANCIENT EPITOME(1) OF CANON I.
 
Eunuchs may be received into the number of  the clergy, but those 
who castrate themselves shall not be received.
 
BALSAMON.
The divine Apostolic Canons xxi., xxii., xxiii., and xxiv., have taught 
us sufficiently what ought to be done with those who castrate 
themselves, this canon provides as to what is to be done to these as 
well as to those who deliver themselves over to others to be 
emasculated by them, viz., that they are not to be admitted among the 
clergy nor advanced to the priesthood.
 
DANIEL BUTLER.
(Smith & Cheetham, Dict. Christ. Ant.)
The feeling that one devoted to the sacred ministry should be 
unmutilated was strong in the Ancient Church .... This canon of Nice, 
and those in the Apostolic Canons and a later one in the Second 
Council of Arles(canon vii.) were aimed against that perverted notion 
of piety, originating in the misinterpretation of our Lord's saying 
(Matt. xix. 12) by which Origen, among others, was misled, and their 
observance was so carefully enforced in later times that not more than 
one or two instances of the practice which they condemn are noticed 
by the historian. The case was different if a man was born an eunuch 
or had suffered mutilation at the hands of persecutors; an instance of 
the former, Dorotheus, presbyter of Antioch, is mentioned by 
Eusebius(H. E. vii., c. 32); of the latter, Tigris, presbyter of 
Constantinople, is referred to both by Socrates(H. E. vi. 16) and 
Sozomen(H. E. vi. 24) as the victim of a barbarian master.
 
HEFELE.
We know, by the first apology of St. Justin(Apol. c. 29) that a century 
before Origen, a young man had desired to be mutilated by physicians, 
for the purpose of completely refuting the charge of vice which the 
heathen brought against the worship of Christians. St. Justin neither 
praises nor blames this young man: he only relates that he could not 
obtain the permission of the civil authorities for his project, that he 
renounced his intention, but nevertheless remained virgo all his life. It 
is very probable that the Council of Nice was induced by some fresh 
similar cases to renew the old injunctions; it was perhaps the Arian 
bishop, Leontius, who was the principal cause of it.(1)
 
LAMBERT.
Constantine forbade by a law the practice condemned in this canon. "If 
anyone shall anywhere in the Roman Empire after this decree make 
eunuchs, he shall be punished with death. If the owner of the place 
where the deed was perpetrated was aware of it and hid the fact, his 
goods shall be confiscated."(Const. M. 0pera. Migne Patrol. vol. viii., 
396.)
 
BEVERIDGE.
  The Nicene fathers in this canon make no new enactment but only 
confirm by the authority of an Ecumenical synod the Apostolic 
Canons, and this is evident from the wording of this canon. For there 
can be no doubt that they had in mind some earlier canon when they 
said, "such men the canon admits to the clergy." Not, 
 outos    ok?nwn  , but 
 o    kanwn  , as if they had said "the 
formerly set forth and well-known canon" admits such to the clergy. But no other canon 
then existed in which this provision occurred except apostolical canon 
xxi. which therefore we are of opinion is here cited. 
 
[In this conclusion Hefele also agrees.]
This law was frequently enacted by subsequent synods and is inserted 
in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Decretum Gratiani. Pars. I. Distinctio 
LV., C vij.
 
 



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