[Novatians], if a bishop, he may have the dignity of a presbyter, unless, indeed, it may please the Catholic bishop to accord to him even the honor of the episcopal name. However, if otherwise, he shall provide for him the place of a country bishop (chorepiscopou) or of a priest, that he may, by all means, appear to be in the number of the clergy, and that there may not be two bishops in one city.
9 and 10. That presbyters, who had lapsed, or committed crimes before their ordination, such as would disqualify them for the sacred office, should be deprived of their offices, as soon as discovered.[1]
11. Required those, who had lapsed during the late persecutions under Licinius, first, to do pennance at the threshold of the church three years; secondly, in the porch among the catechumens, seven years; and, thirdly, to be allowed to witness, but not join in, the celebration of the eucharist, for two years more.
12. That the greater apostates shall also spend ten years in the second penance, but this to be at the discretion of the bishops. "Those, who, being called by grace, have been zealous, and have laid aside their belts, used in the armies of Licinius, but afterwards put them on again, and even given money to be admitted again into his service, shall remain three years among the hearers, and ten among the lower rank. But in case of these peni-
- ↑ In the ninth canon, I find these words: "Si quis ergo fuerit fornicationis damnatus, sive antequam consecraretur, sive postea, deponitur."—Bev. Pand. Canonum, tom. i.
According to St. Ambrose, the Council of Nice decreed, that no one whatever ought to be a clergyman, who had boldly contracted a second marriage.
