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

The First Council of Nicaea

Canon XIX

The Paulianists are to be baptised on entering the Church; their clergy examined and either ordained or deposed; and their deaconesses, having no imposition of hands, are numbered among the laity.

  • 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.
  • Disputed historyHistorians genuinely disagree. The page gives the range the evidence supports rather than choosing the most striking version.

Primary evidence verified Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

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Canon XIX — conciliar text

Concerning the Paulianists who have flown for refuge to the Catholic Church, it has been decreed that they must by all means be rebaptized; and if any of them who in past time have been numbered among their clergy should be found blameless and without reproach, let them be rebaptized and ordained by the Bishop of the Catholic Church; but if the examination should discover them to be unfit, they ought to be deposed. Likewise in the case of their deaconesses, and generally in the case of those who have been enrolled among their clergy, let the same form be observed. And we mean by deaconesses such as have assumed the habit, but who, since they have no imposition of hands, are to be numbered only among the laity.

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

Paulianists must be rebaptised, and if such as are clergymen seem to be blameless let them be ordained. If they do not seem to be blameless, let them be deposed. Deaconesses who have been led astray, since they are not sharers of ordination, are to be reckoned among the laity.

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

Those of the Paulianists who take refuge in the Catholic Church must by all means be rebaptised. Any who were formerly numbered among their clergy, if found blameless and without reproach, are to be baptised and ordained by the bishop of the Catholic Church; if examination shows them unfit, they are to be deposed.

The same form is observed for their deaconesses and generally for all who were enrolled among their clergy. And the council explains that by deaconesses it means those who have assumed the habit but who, since they have no imposition of hands, are to be numbered among the laity.

The fourth-century problem

The Paulianists were followers of Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, deposed in the 260s for teaching about Christ that the Church rejected. The council's requirement of baptism indicates that it did not regard their baptism as Christian baptism at all.

Contrast canon VIII, where the Novatianist clergy are received in their orders on written profession. The council is drawing a doctrinal line, not applying a general rule about schismatics.

Canonical principle

The validity of a baptism depends on the faith in which it is given. Where the Church judges that the faith was absent, it does not treat the rite as having occurred — which is why the canon says rebaptised while meaning baptised.

The parallel treatment of clergy and deaconesses shows the council applying one procedure to a whole community, with the note about the imposition of hands explaining why the deaconesses' case is described as it is.

Key vocabulary

Paulianists
Followers of Paul of Samosata, deposed as bishop of Antioch in the 260s.
deaconess
A woman in an order of service in the ancient Church. The evidence for what deaconesses did, and how their setting apart related to ordination, varies by region and century.

What kind of canon this is

  • disciplinary
  • dogmatic

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

Percival prints a substantial excursus on the deaconess of the early Church with this canon, together with Ffoulkes's note on the phrase used for the decree.

The clause about the Paulianist deaconesses has been read in more than one way: as saying that deaconesses generally received no laying on of hands, or as saying that these particular women had not. The canon's wording refers to the Paulianists it is discussing, and the wider evidence for the ordination of deaconesses in the Church is a separate question that this canon does not settle.

Unresolved questions

  • Whether the canon's clause about the imposition of hands describes deaconesses generally or only those among the Paulianists is disputed, and the canon alone does not settle it.
  • Canon VIII, on receiving the clergy of the Cathari without rebaptism.

  • 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.

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  • Baptism, chrismation and entry into the Church

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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 XIX 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 XIX, with Percival's notes annotated edition of conciliar texts Nineteenth-century editorial apparatus and Byzantine canonists. Source record

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