1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Neo-Caesarea, Synod of

by Theodore Freylinghuysen Collier

NEO-CAESAREA, SYNOD OF, a synod held shortly after that of Ancyra, probably about 314 or 315 (although Hefele inclines to put it somewhat later). Its principal work was the adoption of fifteen disciplinary canons, which were subsequently accepted as ecumenical by the Council of Chalcedon, 451, and of which the most important are the following: i. degrading priests who marry after ordination; vii. forbidding a priest to be present at the second marriage of any one; viii. refusing ordination to the husband of an adulteress; xi. fixing thirty years as the age below which one might not be ordained (because Christ began His public ministry at the age of thirty); xiii. according to city priests the precedence over country priests; xiv. permitting Chorepiscopi to celebrate the sacraments; xv. requiring that there be seven deacons in every city.

See Mansi ii. pp. 539-551; Hardouin i. pp. 282-286; Hefele (2nd ed.) i. pp. 242-251 (Eng. trans. i. pp. 222-230).  (T. F. C.)