Editing Synod of Ancyra

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{short description|Ecclesiastical council, or synod, convened in modern-day Ankara in 314.}}
The '''Synod of Ancyra''' was an ecclesiastical council, or [[synod]], convened in [[Ancyra]], the seat of the Roman administration for the province of [[Galatia]], in 314. Together with the synods of Neocaesarea, Antioch, Gangra and Laodicea, the canons of the council formed the nucleus of nearly all future collections of church law.<ref name="Ferguson">{{cite book |last1=Ferguson |first1=Everett |title=Encyclopedia of Early Christianity: Second Edition |date=8 October 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-61158-2 |pages=50,211,370,713 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Encyclopedia_of_Early_Christianity/oUFFAQAAQBAJ |access-date=24 March 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

==Setting==
The season was soon after Easter; the year may be safely deduced from the fact that the first nine canons are intended to repair havoc wreaked in the church by persecution, which ceased after the overthrow of [[Maximinus II]] in 313.{{sfn|Rockwell|1911}} Three lists of bishops who attended have been preserved, varying between 12 and 18 participating bishops. Though the lists might have been amended later, most participants can be dated to the period and were present at the council of Nicaea.{{sfn|Ohme|2012|page=39}} Either Vitalis, Bishop of Antioch, or [[Marcellus of Ancyra]], [[bishop of Ancyra]],<ref name="Ferguson" /> presided, and possibly both were present, although the Libellus Synodicus, also known as the [[Synodicon Vetus]], assigns to the latter.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3802.htm|title=CHURCH FATHERS: Council of Ancyra (A.D. 314)}}</ref>

==Decrees==
The synod issued 25 [[canon law|canons]], with the oldest preserved version of the Greek text dating to the ninth or tenth century.{{sfn|Ohme|2012|pages=39-40}} The first nine canons of the council dealt with the readmission of clergy and laity who had lapsed during the persecutions. Depending on the clerical rank and circumstances of this apostasy, different penances were prescribed.<ref name="Ferguson" />

The remaining fifteen canons dealt with issues of ecclesiastic discipline and jurisdiction, asceticism and violence arising from clerical appointments.<ref name="Ferguson" /> 

The tenth canon tolerates the marriages of deacons who previous to ordination had reserved the right to take a wife.{{sfn|Rockwell|1911}} The thirteenth forbids [[chorepiscopi]] to ordain presbyters or deacons.{{sfn|Rockwell|1911}}

The sixteenth canon brackets the Christians who have committed [[bestiality]], or may still have been doing so, into several different groups based on the offender's age, and assigns different penances to each group; married men over 20 were sanctioned more harshly than unmarried youths, and married men over 50 received the harshest sanctions.

The seventeenth canon condemns the Christians who have either committed [[bestiality]] or had [[sexual intercourse]] with a [[leper|leprous]] woman, while themselves being leprous, to having to [[excommunication|pray with the ''wintering people'']] - i.e. outside church buildings. The [[Women in Christianity|equation of leprous women with beasts]] is generally considered difficult to interpret.

The eighteenth safeguards the right of the people in objecting to the appointment of a bishop whom they do not wish. {{sfn|Rockwell|1911}}

Canon twenty-two concerns itself with [[voluntary homicide|wilful murderers]], proscribing them to remain prostrators but allows them at the end of life to be indulged with full communion. Canon twenty-four imposes five years of penance upon those who consult magicians.<ref name="beyond">{{cite book |isbn=978-1578840373 |page=65|title=Beyond the Crusades: Christianity's Lies, Laws, and Legacy|last1=Paulkovich|first1=Michael|date=December 2016|publisher=Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp }}</ref>

The Council also condemned both [[abortion]] and [[infanticide]], though it only suggested a ten year excommunication compared to the lifelong excommunication imposed by the [[council of Elvira]].<ref name="Ferguson" />

==Legacy==
The canons resulting from the synod have a particular importance for the history of the institution of [[penance]] and are among the earliest evidence for the three-step system of penance, which later became the four-step system. Further, canon 13 contains the first evidence for chorepiscopi.{{sfn|Ohme|2012|page=41}} 

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{EB1911|wstitle=Ancyra|volume=1|first=William Walker|last= Rockwell}}
* {{cite book |last1=Ohme |first1=Heinz |editor1-last=Hartmann |editor1-first=Wilfried |editor2-last=Pennington |editor2-first=Kenneth |title=The History of Byzantine and Eastern Canon Law to 1500 |date=27 February 2012 |publisher=CUA Press |isbn=978-0-8132-1679-9 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_History_of_Byzantine_and_Eastern_Can/BwnCVYHf5VAC |access-date=24 March 2025 |language=en |chapter=Sources of the Greek Canon Law to the Quinisext Council (691/692)}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last1=Hefele |first1=Charles Joseph |title=A History of the Councils of the Church: from the Original Documents, to the close of the Second Council of Nicaea A.D. 787 |date=1 February 2007 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-55635-247-8 |pages=199-222 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_History_of_the_Councils_of_the_Church/6_VJAwAAQBAJ |access-date=24 March 2025 |language=en}}

== External links ==
* [https://sites.google.com/site/canonsoc/home/-canons-of-the-particular-councils/council-of-ancyra-314 Canons of the Council of Ancyra]
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[[Category:4th-century church councils|Ancyra]]
[[Category:314]]
[[Category:310s in the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Events in Ankara]]
[[Category:Christian clerical marriage]]
[[Category:Zoophilia]]