Canons of the Council of Carthage (ca. 345–348)

Contents

1. 0Opening fragment: the council of some fifty bishops under Gratus of Carthage.
2. 1The council forbids the rebaptism of anyone baptized in the triune faith.
3. 2No one is to be honoured as a martyr who threw himself to death in madness or died for some sin; offenders do penance or, if clerics, lose their rank.
4. 3Celibate men and women devoted to virginity may not live in the same house; laymen who persist are excommunicated and clerics lose their rank.
5. 4The same rule applies to men who live with widows to whom they are not related, and to widowers and widows.
6. 5No bishop may receive another's cleric without his bishop's letters, or ordain a layman of another church without that bishop's consent.
7. 6Clerics may not act as managers or agents of estates and households.
8. 7No cleric or layman may receive communion in another church without letters from his bishop.
9. 8Estate managers and guardians may be ordained only after they have laid down their offices and rendered their accounts.
10. 9Masters may not compel clerics to serve as their storekeepers or accountants; the church will defend clerics against such demands.
11. 10No bishop may intrude into another's territory or people without his request.
12. 11Insolent clerics are disciplined; a deacon is tried by three bishops, a presbyter by six, a bishop by twelve.
13. 12Agreements between bishops dividing their people must be kept; a bishop who breaks one faces church discipline.
14. 13Clerics may not lend at interest, since Scripture plainly forbids it to all.
15. 14Gratus confirms all the decrees, with excommunication or deposition for those who violate them, and the bishops subscribe.