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

The canons of Nicaea — lesson 2

The twenty canons of Nicaea: an overview

What the first council actually legislated about, in one pass, before you read them one by one.

  • 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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  • Add an official Orthodox commentary on the Nicene canons to the verification routes.

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What this lesson covers

  • Summarise the subject matter of all twenty canons.
  • Group them by the concerns they address.
  • Know where to read each in full.

About 8 minutes to read.

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The twenty canons of the First Council of Nicaea are archived here in full, in Percival's public-domain translation, and each has its own study page. This lesson is the map.

Clergy: qualification and conduct

  • I — self-mutilation and the clergy; those maimed by others are not excluded.
  • II — recent converts are not to be advanced immediately.
  • III — clergy are not to have women living with them except close relatives and those beyond suspicion.
  • IX — ordination without examination, where crime is afterwards confessed.
  • X — the lapsed who were ordained are to be deposed.
  • XVII — clergy are not to lend at interest.

Structure and order

  • IV — a bishop is ordained by the bishops of the province, at least three, confirmed by the metropolitan.
  • V — excommunication by one bishop is respected by others, and provincial synods meet twice a year.
  • VI — the customary jurisdictions of Alexandria, Rome and Antioch.
  • VII — the honour of the see of Ælia, that is Jerusalem.
  • XV — bishops, presbyters and deacons are not to move from city to city.
  • XVI — clergy who desert their church are not to be received by another.

Reconciliation and penance

  • VIII — receiving the clergy of the Cathari.
  • XI — those who lapsed under Licinius without compulsion.
  • XII — soldiers who left the army for the faith and returned to it.
  • XIII — communion for the dying is not to be denied.
  • XIV — catechumens who lapsed.
  • XIX — the Paulianists are to be baptised.

Worship

  • XVIII — deacons are to remain within their order in the Liturgy.
  • XX — prayer is made standing on Sundays and through the season of Pentecost.

Council and canon connections

Why this matters in lived Orthodoxy

Several of these canons still describe the ordinary structure of Orthodox Church order: provincial synods, the metropolitan's part in episcopal ordination, and the refusal to let clergy drift between cities without release.

Review

How many canons did Nicaea issue, and what do they cover?
Twenty, covering clergy qualification and conduct, the structure of the Church, reconciliation and penance, and worship.
Is there a Nicene canon about the books of Scripture?
No. None of the twenty concerns the canon of Scripture.

Your notes

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Going deeper

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.) The Canons of the 318 Holy Fathers Assembled in the City of Nice, Canons I-XX annotated edition of conciliar texts Source record
  2. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) Excursus on the Number of the Nicene Canons annotated edition of conciliar texts 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.