Abtilis

Canon 35

Overview

This canon addresses the invalidity of bishops ordained by force or without the consent of the local clergy and people, prescribing deposition and excommunication for such acts.

1Abṭelis, 35. If a man is ordained a bishop but does not stand firm in the bishopric, nor in his rank, but is removed from it and saved and united in mind by the message, let him be sent to the Church of God if he is planted there and not separated from their order, until he abandons this. But if a man is raised by force, and he is not of them, and is ordained a bishop by the consent of their spirit for the people of that country, and he flees to that country, and no one receives him, and they do not come, for he is not their bishop by will, but God has removed him and ordained him, and the spirit of his people and his own priests who anointed him, purified them, and prayed for him, that he may not be above them in ordination, and the bishop believed among them, and he is a bishop as they loved him, or hated him. But if they are known among them as priests who are his place, and they build a church for him by themselves, let the priests who are his place be deposed, and let the people of that church be bound, for they do not associate with him, nor do they believe in his conduct, nor do they obey him, and he does not speak.