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

The First Council of Nicaea

Canon IV

A bishop is to be ordained by all the bishops of the province; failing that by at least three, with the written consent of the absent, and confirmed by the metropolitan.

  • 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 IV — conciliar text

It is by all means proper that a bishop should be appointed by all the bishops in the province; but should this be difficult, either on account of urgent necessity or because of distance, three at least should meet together, and the suffrages of the absent [bishops] also being given and communicated in writing, then the ordination should take place. But in every province the ratification of what is done should be left to the Metropolitan.

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

A bishop is to be chosen by all the bishops of the province, or at least by three, the rest giving by letter their assent; but this choice must be confirmed by the Metropolitan.

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

The proper form is that all the bishops of a province ordain a new bishop. Where distance or urgent necessity makes that impossible, at least three must gather, with the written agreement of those absent. In every province the metropolitan confirms what has been done.

The fourth-century problem

Episcopal elections were a point of real conflict, and a see could be contested by rival candidates each with supporters. The Melitian schism in Egypt, which this same council was addressing, had produced exactly that.

The canon establishes a procedure that makes a disputed ordination harder to sustain: enough bishops must be involved, the absent must be consulted, and the metropolitan must confirm.

Canonical principle

A bishop is not the possession of his own city. He is made by the college of bishops around him and confirmed by the one who has responsibility for the province, because the Church is not a federation of independent congregations.

The provision for written consent from absent bishops is worth noticing: the council preferred a slower process with wider agreement to a faster one with fewer participants.

Key vocabulary

metropolitan
The bishop of the chief city of a civil province, with responsibility for the bishops of that province.

What kind of canon this is

  • administrative
  • structural

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 canon still describes Orthodox practice. A bishop is elected and consecrated by other bishops, and no jurisdiction treats episcopal ordination as a local matter.

Percival prints Zonaras discussing an apparent tension with the first apostolic canon, which speaks of two or three bishops, and resolving it by distinguishing consecration from election. The canonists do not always agree, and Percival prints them disagreeing.

  • Canon VI, on the customary jurisdictions of the great sees.
  • Canon V, on provincial synods.

  • 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 Church, bishops and councils

    Apostolic succession, the conciliar habit, and why reception is what makes a council ecumenical.

    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 IV 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 IV, 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.