The First Council of Nicaea
Canon V
Excommunication by one bishop is to be respected by others; and provincial synods are to meet twice a year to review such cases.
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Canon V — conciliar text
Concerning those, whether of the clergy or of the laity, who have been excommunicated in the several provinces, let the provision of the canon be observed by the bishops which provides that persons cast out by some be not readmitted by others. Nevertheless, inquiry should be made whether they have been excommunicated through captiousness, or contentiousness, or any such like ungracious disposition in the bishop. And, that this matter may have due investigation, it is decreed that in every province synods shall be held twice a year, in order that when all the bishops of the province are assembled together, such questions may by them be thoroughly examined, that so those who have confessedly offended against their bishop, may be seen by all to be for just cause excommunicated, until it shall seem fit to a general meeting of the bishops to pronounce a milder sentence upon them. And let these synods be held, the one before Lent, (that the pure Gift may be offered to God after all bitterness has been put away), and let the second be held about autumn.
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 as have been excommunicated by certain bishops shall not be restored by others, unless the excommunication was the result of pusillanimity, or strife, or some other similar cause. And that this may be duly attended to, there shall be in each year two synods in every province—the one before Lent, the other toward autumn.
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 excommunicated in one province are not to be received in another. But the council requires that it be examined whether the excommunication was imposed out of pettiness, contentiousness or ill temper on the bishop's part.
To make that examination possible, synods are to be held twice a year in every province: one before Lent, so that the pure Gift may be offered to God after all bitterness has been put away, and one about autumn.
The fourth-century problem
A bishop's sentence had to mean something outside his own province, or discipline would collapse as anyone under censure simply travelled. But a rule of automatic mutual recognition would make an unjust bishop unanswerable.
The canon solves both problems at once by pairing recognition with review.
Canonical principle
Authority is real and is accountable. The canon does not weaken a bishop's power to excommunicate; it places that power inside a structure that meets regularly and can correct it.
The reason given for the timing of the spring synod is theological rather than administrative: quarrels among bishops are to be settled before the Church offers the Gift.
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
Percival notes that the requirement of twice-yearly synods proved among the hardest canonical provisions to keep, and that later councils repeated it with penalties. He quotes Zonaras complaining that in his own time these synods were treated with contempt and had ceased to be held.
That an ancient canon was widely disregarded is part of its reception history, and a page that omitted it would be presenting the canons as more tidily observed than they were.
Related canons
- Canon IV, on the ordination of bishops within the province.
Related in this archive
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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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The Church, bishops and councils
Apostolic succession, the conciliar habit, and why reception is what makes a council ecumenical.
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The twenty canons of Nicaea: an overview
What the first council actually legislated about, in one pass, before you read them one by one.
Your notes
Sources for this page
- Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Canon V of Nicaea annotated edition of conciliar texts The conciliar text as archived here. Source record (opens in a new tab)
- Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Ancient Epitome of Canon V, with Percival's notes annotated edition of conciliar texts Nineteenth-century editorial apparatus and Byzantine canonists. Source record (opens in a new tab)
Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.