Abtilis
Canon 40
Overview
This canon establishes the bishop's authority over church property, requiring him to manage it with integrity and fear of God, while ensuring that priests and deacons receive their share. It draws a parallel with the king's stewardship, noting that the bishop, as God's messenger, must not appropriate offerings for himself but distribute them according to divine law.
1Abṭelis, Canon 40: Let the bishop be swift and diligent over the goods of the church, so that he may be found good and blameless, not trusting in himself, but being great and mighty in all the goods of the church, so that he may distribute them to the priests and to the deacons. And let him be in the fear of God, in purity and in fear. And let the bishop not take from it anything for himself, nor permit the priests and his brothers to take anything without his permission, for the law of God has commanded that every tithe of the sacrifice be given to the messenger of the sacrifice. And just as the king who does not guard the tithes of the king is removed from the king's goods, so also he who takes for himself the tithes of the messenger, whom he has appointed as messenger, and who does not give them to the poor, and who does not distribute the goods of the truth within the assembly of the king, shall be removed from his office.