Prefatory Note.

  The Canons of the Holy and Altogether August Apostles. 

 I.

 II.

 III.

 IV.

 The Epistle of the Same Athanasius Taken from the XXXIX. Festal Epistle.

 The Epistle of St. Athanasius to Ruffinian.

 The Second Canonical Epistle of the Same.

 The Third Epistle of the Same to the Same.

 From an Epistle of the Same to the Blessed Amphilochius on the Difference of Meats.

 Of the Same to Diodorus Bishop of Tarsus, concerning a Man who had taken Two Sisters to Wife.

 Of the Same to Gregory a Presbyter, that He Should Separate from a Woman who Dwelt with Him.

 Of the Same to the Chorepiscopi, that No Ordinations Should Be Made Contrary to the Canons.

 Of the Same to His Suffragans that They Should Not Ordain for Money.

 VI.

 VII.

 VIII.

 IX.

 X.

 The Commonitory of the Same which Ammon Received on Account of Lycus.

 Of the Same to Agatho the Bishop.

 Of the Same to Menas the Bishop.

 The Narrative of the Same concerning Those Called Cathari.

 XI.

 Of the Same to the Bishops of Libya and Pentapolis.

  XII. 

IV.

 The Epistle of St. Athanasius to the Monk Ammus.   1  In English translation named Amun.

(Παντα μὲν καλὰ, κ.τ.λ.)

(  This, as Epistle XLVIII,  will be found translated in Vol. IV. of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (  2d Series )  p . 556  et seq .)

Involuntary nocturnal pollutions are not sinful, [I add to Johnson the exact words of the Saint. “For what sin or uncleanness can any natural excrement have in itself? Think of the absurdity of making a sin of the wax which comes from the ears or of the spittle from the mouth. Moreover we might add many things and explain how the excretions from the belly are necessary to animal life. But if we believe that man is the work of God’s hand, as we are taught in holy Scripture, how can it be supposed necessary that we perform anything impure? And if we are the children of God, as the holy Acts of the Apostles teaches, we have in us nothing unclean, etc., etc.”]; nor is matrimony unclean, though virginity [“which is angelic and than which nothing can be more excellent”] is to be preferred before it.

1 In English translation named Amun.