Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 4/Part 30

by Philip Schaff et al.

XII.^[1]

The Encyclical Letter of Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople and of the Holy Synod Met with Him to All the Holy Metropolitans and to the Pope of the City of Rome.^[2]

To the most beloved of God, fellow-minister, Gennadius and the most holy synod assembled in the royal city which is New Rome, sendeth greeting.

As our Lord without money and without price ordained his Apostles, so should we ordain the clergy, for the Lord has placed us in their grade and in their stead (ἐις τὸν ἐκείνων βαθηόν τε καὶ τόπον).  Nor should we use any ingenious sophisms to avoid this plain duty, explicitly laid upon us, not only by the words of the Gospel but also by a canon of the great Ecumenical Synod of Chalcedon.

Footnotes

1. The Greeks speak of the canons of The Thirteen Holy Fathers, counting in the number St. Cyprian’s canon, but as this was really Synodal I have placed it in that category.
2. In this I have not followed Johnson, but translated from Beveridge, Synod., Tom. II., p. 181.