CANON X.

IF any who have lapsed have been ordained through the ignorance, or 

even with the previous knowledge of the ordainers, this shall not 

prejudice the canon of the Church for when they are discovered they 

shall be deposed.

NOTES.

ANCIENT EPITOME OF CANON X.

Whoso had lapsed are to be deposed whether those who ordained and 

promoted them did so conscious of their guilt or unknowing of it.

HEFELE.

The tenth canon differs from the ninth, inasmuch as it concerns only 

the lapsi and their elevation, not only to the priesthood, but to any 

other ecclesiastical preferment as well, and requires their deposition. 

The punishment of a bishop who should consciously perform such an 

ordination is not mentioned; but it is incontestable that the lapsi could 

not be ordained, even after having performed penance; for, as the 

preceding canon states, the Church requires those who were faultless. 

It is to be observed that the word  prokeirizein   is 

evidently employed here in the sense of "ordain," and is used without 

any distinction from  keirizein  , whilst in the synodal 

letter of the Council of Nicaea on the subject of the Meletians, there is 

a distinction between these two words, and 

 prokeirizein   is used to signify eliger.

This canon is found in Corpus Juris Canonici. Decretum. Pars I. Dist. 

lxxxi. c.v.