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

The First Council of Nicaea

Canon XVI

Clergy who desert their own church are not to be received elsewhere, and an ordination performed without the proper bishop's consent is void.

  • 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.
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Primary evidence verified Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

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Canon XVI — conciliar text

Neither presbyters, nor deacons, nor any others enrolled among the clergy, who, not having the fear of God before their eyes, nor regarding the ecclesiastical Canon, shall recklessly remove from their own church, ought by any means to be received by another church; but every constraint should be applied to restore them to their own parishes; and, if they will not go, they must be excommunicated. And if anyone shall dare surreptitiously to carry off and in his own Church ordain a man belonging to another, without the consent of his own proper bishop, from whom although he was enrolled in the clergy list he has seceded, let the ordination be void.

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

Such presbyters or deacons as desert their own Church are not to be admitted into another, but are to be sent back to their own diocese. But if any bishop should ordain one who belongs to another Church without the consent of his own bishop, the ordination shall be cancelled.

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

Presbyters, deacons and others enrolled among the clergy who recklessly leave their own church are not to be received by another. Every constraint is to be applied to restore them to their own parishes, and if they will not go, they are to be excommunicated.

And if anyone dares to take a man belonging to another bishop and ordain him in his own church, without the consent of the bishop from whom he seceded, the ordination is void.

The fourth-century problem

This is the presbyteral and diaconal counterpart to canon XV. Clergy who were dissatisfied could simply move, and a bishop short of clergy could receive them.

The canon closes both halves of the arrangement: the receiving bishop is as much the object of the rule as the departing cleric.

Canonical principle

Clergy belong to a church and are released by a bishop, not by their own decision. The word Percival's note draws attention to is parish, which in this canon means what would now be called a diocese.

The nullity of the improper ordination is the operative sanction: the canon makes the manoeuvre pointless rather than merely wrong.

Key vocabulary

parish
In this canon, what would now be called a diocese. Percival's note on the canon says so expressly.
letters dimissory
A written release from a cleric's own bishop, permitting him to serve in another jurisdiction.

What kind of canon this is

  • administrative
  • 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

The requirement of letters dimissory — a written release from the ordaining bishop before a cleric may serve elsewhere — descends directly from this canon and is universal in Orthodox practice.

Percival prints Balsamon explaining exactly that.

  • Canon XV, on bishops, presbyters and deacons moving between cities.

  • 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

  • The canons and Church order

    What canons are, how they are received, and why they are not an internet law code.

    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 XVI 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 XVI, 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.