CANON XIX.

CONCERNING the Paulianists who have flown for refuge to the 

Catholic Church, it has been decreed that they must by all means be 

rebaptized; and if any of them who in past time have been numbered 

among their clergy should be found blameless and without reproach, 

let them be rebaptized and ordained by the Bishop of the Catholic 

Church; but if the examination should discover them to be unfit, they 

ought to be deposed. Likewise in the case of their deaconesses, and 

generally in the case of those who have been enrolled among their 

clergy, let the same form be observed. And we mean by deaconesses 

such as have assumed the habit, but who, since they have no 

imposition of hands, are to be numbered only among the laity.

NOTES.

ANCIENT EPITOME OF CANON XIX.

Paulianists must be rebaptised, and if such as are clergymen seem to 

be blameless let then, be ordained. If they do not seem to be blameless, 

let them be deposed. Deaconesses who have been led astray, since 

they are not sharers of ordination, are to be reckoned among the laity.

FFOULKES.

(Dict. Chr. Ant. s.v. Nicaea, Councils of.)

That this is the true meaning of the phrase  oros   

 ekteqeitai  , viz. "a decree has now been made," is 

clear from the application of the words  oros   in Canon 

xvii., and  wrisen  , in Canon vi. It has been a pure 

mistake, therefore, which Bp. Hefele blindly follows, to understand it 

of some canon previously passed, whether at Aries or elsewhere.

JUSTELLUS.

Here  keiroqesia   is taken for ordination or 

consecration, not for benediction, . ..  for neither were deaconesses, 

sub-deacons, readers, and other ministers ordained, but a blessing was 

merely pronounced over them by prayer and imposition of hands.

ARISTENUS.

Their(the Paulicians') deaconesses also, since they have no imposition 

of hands, if they come over to the Catholic Church and are baptized, 

are ranked among the laity.

With this Zonaras and Balsamon also agree.

HEFELE.

By Paulianists must be understood the followers of Paul of Samosata 

the anti-Trinitarian who, about the year 260, had been made bishop of 

Antioch, but had been deposed by a great Synod in 269. As Paul of 

Samosata was heretical in his teaching on the Holy Trinity the Synod 

of Nice applied to him the decree passed by the council of Arles in its 

eighth canon. "If anyone shall come from heresy to the Church, they 

shall ask him to say the creed; and if they shall perceive that he was 

baptized into the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, (1) he shall 

have a hand laid on him only that he may receive the Holy Ghost. But 

if in answer to their questioning he shall not answer this Trinity, let 

him be baptized."

The Samosatans, according to St. Athanasius, named the Father, Son 

and Holy Spirit in administering baptism(Oral. ii, Contra Arian. No. 

xliii), but as they gave a false meaning to the baptismal formula and 

did not use the words Son and Holy Spirit in the usual sense, the 

Council of Nice, like St. Athanasius himself, considered their baptism 

as invalid.

There is great difficulty about the text of the clause beginning 

"Likewise in the case, etc.," and Gelasius, the Prisca, Theilo and 

Thearistus,(who in 419 translated the canons of Nice for the African 

bishops), the PseudoIsidore, and Gratian have all followed a reading 

 diakonwn  , instead of  diakonisspn  .    

This change makes all clear, but many canonists keep the ordinary 

text, including Van Espen, with whose interpretation Hefele does not 

agree.

The clause I have rendered "And we mean by deaconesses" is most 

difficult of translation. I give the original, 

'E mnhsqhm  <c210> n   

 tpn    en    tp    

 skhmati    exetasqeispn  , 

 epei   . Hefele's translation 

seems to me impossible, by  skhmati   he understands 

the list of the clergy just mentioned.