Council of Chalcedon

451 AD

The Thirty Canons of the Holy and Fourth Council of Chalcedon

 

Source: MANSI VII, 363

Can 15. Diaconissam non esse mulierem ordinandam ante annum quadragesimum, et eam cum accurata examinatione. Si auten postquam ordinatione sucepta ministerio aliquo tempore permansit, seipsam matromonio tradiderit, dei gratiae iniuriam faciens, ea una com illo, qui ei coniunctus est, anathematizetur.

Canon 21. “A Woman shall not be ordained [ Greek original: not receive the laying on of hands] as a deaconess under forty years of age, and then only after searching examination. And if, after she has had hands laid on her and has continued for a time to minister, she shall despise the grace of God and give herself in marriage, she shall be anathematized as well as the man united to her.”

Note: The original Greek text has 'imposition of hands' for 'ordination'.

This canon was later incorporated in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Gratian's Decretum, Pars II., Causa XXVII, Quaest. I., Canon xxiij.

 

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