The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

The First Council of Nicaea

Canon X

Those who lapsed and were then ordained are to be deposed when it is discovered, whether or not the ordainers knew.

  • Canonical normEstablished by a received canon of a council, or of a Father whose canons the Church has received. Canons are applied within the Church's pastoral and conciliar life; a canon is not a rule a reader applies to themselves or to anyone else.
  • Historical consensusBroadly agreed among historians working from the surviving evidence. Consensus can shift when the evidence or the method changes.

Primary evidence verified Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

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Canon X — conciliar text

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.

Henry R. Percival (ed.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. XIV (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1900). Public domain.

Ancient Epitome, as printed in the same edition

Whoso had lapsed are to be deposed whether those who ordained and promoted them did so conscious of their guilt or unknowing of it.

A Byzantine-era summary carried in the canonical collections. It is a witness to how the canon was read, not the canon itself.

Plain-language summary — this project's words, not the canon's

If any who lapsed have been ordained, whether the ordainers knew of it or not, this does not prejudice the canon of the Church: when they are discovered they are to be deposed.

The fourth-century problem

After the persecutions, men who had sacrificed or bought certificates were in some cases ordained, sometimes because the fact was concealed and sometimes because it was overlooked.

The canon settles the question without needing to establish anyone's motive: the ordainer's knowledge does not change the outcome.

Canonical principle

The Church's rule is not suspended by the good faith of those who broke it. That is a hard principle and it is stated without softening.

It is worth noting what the canon does not do: it does not exclude the lapsed from communion, and the canons that follow provide for their restoration as laypeople. It excludes them from the clergy.

What kind of canon this is

  • disciplinary

Percival's edition groups the Nicene canons without formal classification. The kinds named above are this project's analysis, offered so that a reader can see which parts of a canon are principle and which are the arrangement of a particular century.

Later interpretation and reception

This belongs with canons XI, XII and XIV on the lapsed, and with canons II and IX on ordination. Together they show a council working through a single crisis — the aftermath of persecution — from several directions.

The distinction between restoration to communion and eligibility for ordination, which this canon assumes, remains part of Orthodox canonical practice.

  • Canon IX, on ordination without examination.
  • Canon XI, on the lapsed.

  • The First Council of Nicaea

    The council that confessed the Son to be of one substance with the Father, addressed the date of Pascha, and issued twenty disciplinary canons. It did not decide which books belong to the Bible.

    Council

  • Repentance

    From the ancient penitential stations to the sacrament of confession as it is practised now.

    Theme

  • The twenty canons of Nicaea: an overview

    What the first council actually legislated about, in one pass, before you read them one by one.

    Lesson

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Sources for this page

  1. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) Canon X of Nicaea annotated edition of conciliar texts The conciliar text as archived here. Source record
  2. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) Ancient Epitome of Canon X, with Percival's notes annotated edition of conciliar texts Nineteenth-century editorial apparatus and Byzantine canonists. Source record

Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.