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

The First Council of Nicaea

Canon VII

The bishop of Ælia — Jerusalem — is to be honoured, without prejudice to the dignity of the metropolis.

  • 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

What still needs checking (2)
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  • Add a second independent modern translation of the canon for comparison.

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Canon VII — conciliar text

Since custom and ancient tradition have prevailed that the Bishop of Ælia [i.e., Jerusalem] should be honoured, let him, saving its due dignity to the Metropolis, have the next place of honour.

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

Let the Bishop of Ælia be honoured, the rights of the Metropolis being preserved intact.

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

Since custom and ancient tradition have given honour to the bishop of Ælia, he is to have the next place of honour, saving the due dignity of the metropolis.

The fourth-century problem

Jerusalem had been destroyed in 70 and refounded as the Roman colony Ælia Capitolina. Its church was a suffragan see of Caesarea, the civil metropolis of the province. By the fourth century the city's associations were drawing pilgrims and prestige that its canonical standing did not match.

The canon gives honour without transferring jurisdiction — a compromise that satisfied nobody completely and left a question open.

Canonical principle

Honour and jurisdiction are separable. A see may be given precedence for what it is without acquiring authority over the province.

The canon also shows the council preferring to adjust an existing arrangement rather than to redraw it.

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

Which metropolis the canon means is itself disputed. Percival records that Hefele, Balsamon, Aristenus and Beveridge take it to be Caesarea, while Zonaras takes it to be Jerusalem, and that others have argued for Antioch.

Jerusalem became a patriarchate at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which settled by a later act what this canon had left ambiguous.

Unresolved questions

  • Which see the canon means by the metropolis is disputed, and Percival prints the canonists disagreeing.
  • Canon VI, on the customary jurisdictions.
  • The decree on the jurisdiction of Jerusalem and Antioch at Chalcedon, Session VII.

  • 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 Council of Chalcedon

    The council that confessed Christ in two natures, unconfused and undivided, in one person. Its definition is the classic Christological statement of the Church, and its reception divided the Church permanently.

    Council

  • The Church, bishops and councils

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

    Theme

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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 VII 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 VII, 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.