[Simon the Canaanite Concerning the Number Necessary for the Ordination of a Bishop.]
XXVII. 153 Ch. xxvii., xxviii., xxx.-xxxiv., and ch. xlii.-xlvii., occur in Syriac and Coptic, as well as in the Greek mss. And I Simon the Canaanite 154 One V. ms. has the following note: “Simon the Canaanite, preacher of the truth, is crowned with martyrdom in Judea in the reign of Domitian.” make a constitution to determine by how many a bishop ought to be elected. Let a bishop be ordained by three or two bishops; but if any one be ordained by one bishop, let him be deprived, both himself and he that ordained him. But if there be a necessity that he have only one to ordain him, because more bishops cannot come together, as in time of persecution, or for such like causes, let him bring the suffrage of permission from more bishops.
[27] Σίμων δὲ ὁ Καναναῖος κἀγὼ διατάσσομαι ὑμῖν, ὑπὸ πόσων ὀφείλει χειροτονεῖσθαι ὁ ἐπίσκοπος. Ἐπίσκοπος ὑπὸ τριῶν ἢ δύο ἐπισκόπων χειροτονείσθω: ἐὰν δέ τις ὑπὸ ἑνὸς χειροτονηθῇ ἐπισκόπου, καθαιρείσθω καὶ αὐτὸς καὶ ὁ χειροτονήσας. Ἐὰν δὲ ἀνάγκη ὑπὸ ἑνὸς καταλάβῃ χειροτονηθῆναι διὰ τὸ μὴ δύνασθαι πλείονας παραγενέσθαι, διωγμοῦ ὄντος ἢ ἄλλης τοιαύτης αἰτίας, ψήφισμα κομιζέτω τῆς ἐπιτροπῆς πλειόνων ἐπισκόπων.