Canons of the Council of Laodicea

Contents

1. 1Those lawfully joined in a second marriage are to be readmitted to communion by indulgence after a short time of prayer and fasting.
2. 2Penitents who persevere in confession and turn from their sins are readmitted to communion after a penance proportioned to the fault.
3. 3The newly baptized are not to be ordained.
4. 4Clergy may not lend at interest.
5. 5Ordinations are not to be held in the presence of those in the class of hearers.
6. 6Obstinate heretics are not to be admitted into the church.
7. 7Converts from the Novatians, Photinians and Quartodecimans are received after anathematizing heresy, learning the creed and being anointed with chrism.
8. 8Converts from the Montanists, even their clergy, are to be catechized and baptized.
9. 9Church members who visit heretics' cemeteries or martyr-shrines to pray or seek healing are excommunicated until they repent.
10. 10Church members are not to marry their children to heretics without discrimination.
11. 11Women called presbytides or presiding women are no longer to be appointed in the church.
12. 12Bishops are appointed by the metropolitan and neighboring bishops from men long tested in faith and life.
13. 13The crowds are not to elect candidates for the priesthood.
14. 14The consecrated eucharist is not to be sent to other dioceses at Easter as a gift.
15. 15Only the appointed singers, singing from the book at the ambo, are to sing in church.
16. 16On Saturdays the Gospels are to be read together with the other Scriptures.
17. 17Psalms in the services are to be separated by readings.
18. 18The same prayers are to be said at the ninth hour and at evening.
19. 19The order of the liturgy: prayers for catechumens and penitents after the sermon, three prayers of the faithful, the kiss of peace, then the offering; only clergy enter the sanctuary.
20. 20Deacons are not to sit before presbyters without their leave, and are to be honored by the lower clergy.
21. 21Subdeacons may not occupy the diaconicon or handle the sacred vessels.
22. 22Subdeacons may not wear the deacon's stole or leave their post at the doors.
23. 23Readers and singers may not wear the orarion.
24. 24No clergy or ascetics may enter a tavern.
25. 25Subdeacons may not distribute the eucharistic bread or bless the cup.
26. 26Only those appointed by bishops may perform exorcisms.
27. 27Guests at a love-feast are not to carry food away.
28. 28Love-feasts and meals are not to be held in church buildings.
29. 29Christians are not to keep the Jewish Sabbath rest but are to honor Sunday; judaizers are anathematized.
30. 30No Christian, cleric or lay, is to bathe with women in the public baths.
31. 31Christians are not to give their children in marriage to heretics, but may take heretics' children who promise to become Christians.
32. 32Christians are not to accept the blessings (gifts of bread) of heretics.
33. 33Christians are not to pray with heretics or schismatics.
34. 34Christians who leave the true martyrs to honor heretics' martyrs are anathematized.
35. 35Christians who leave the church to invoke angels in separate gatherings are anathematized as idolaters.
36. 36Clergy may not practice magic or astrology or make amulets, and those who wear amulets are expelled.
37. 37Christians are not to accept festival gifts from Jews or heretics or keep their feasts.
38. 38Christians are not to accept unleavened bread from Jews.
39. 39Christians are not to join pagan festivals.
40. 40Bishops summoned to a synod must attend unless ill.
41. 41Clergy may not travel without their bishop's order.
42. 42Clergy may not travel without canonical letters.
43. 43Subdeacons may not leave the church doors, even to pray.
44. 44Women may not enter the sanctuary.
45. 45No one is to be enrolled for baptism after the second week of Lent.
46. 46Baptismal candidates must learn the creed and recite it to the bishop or presbyters on Thursday.
47. 47Those baptized in sickness who recover must learn the creed.
48. 48The newly baptized are to be anointed with chrism.
49. 49In Lent the eucharist is celebrated only on Saturdays and Sundays.
50. 50The fast is not to be broken on Thursday of Holy Week; all Lent is to be kept with dry food.
51. 51Martyrs' feasts falling in Lent are to be kept on Saturdays and Sundays.
52. 52No weddings or birthday celebrations in Lent.
53. 53Christians at weddings are not to dance but to eat soberly.
54. 54Clergy must leave weddings and banquets before the entertainers come in.
55. 55Neither clergy nor laity are to hold club drinking parties.
56. 56Presbyters are to enter the sanctuary with the bishop, not before him.
57. 57Villages are to be served by visiting clergy rather than bishops, and existing country bishops and presbyters act only with the city bishop's consent.
58. 58Bishops and presbyters are not to celebrate the eucharist in private houses.
59. 59Only the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments are to be read in church.
60. 60A list of the books to be read: twenty-two of the Old Testament and twenty-six of the New, without Revelation.