THE CANONS OF THE  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() 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. ) 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. ); of the latter, Tigris, presbyter of 

Constantinople, is referred to both by Socrates(H. E. vi. ) and 

Sozomen(H. E. vi. ) as the victim of a barbarian master.

HEFELE.

We know, by the first apology of St. Justin(Apol. c. ) 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.()

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., 

.)

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.