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. 

Prefatory Note.

As this volume only professes to contain the conciliar decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, it would seem that canons and rulings which were of private or quasi-private origin should have no place in it; and yet a very considerable number of such determinations are expressly approved by name in the Canons of the Synod in Trullo, which canons were received, to some extent at least (as we have seen), by the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Under these circumstances I have felt that the reader might justly expect to find some mention made of these decrees, which while indeed non-conciliar in origin, yet had received such high conciliar sanction. I have therefore placed a translation of the text of the “Apostolical Canons” with a brief introduction, and have reprinted Johnson’s epitome of the other decrees and canons, supplying a few omissions and adding a few notes, chiefly taken from the Greek scholiasts, Zonaras and Balsamon. It is hoped that thus the present volume has been made practically complete, and that from it, any student can obtain a satisfactory knowledge of all the doctrinal definitions and of all the disciplinary enactments of the undivided Church.