Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 1/The Council of Ancyra/Canons/Canon XIV

Canon XIV.

is decreed that among the clergy, presbyters and deacons who abstain from flesh shall taste of it, and afterwards, if they shall so please, may abstain.&#160; But if they disdain it, and will not even eat herbs served with flesh, but disobey the canon, let them be removed from their order.

Notes.

A priest who is an abstainer from flesh, let him merely taste it and so let him abstain.&#160; But if he will not taste even the vegetables cooked with the meat let him be deposed (&#960;&#949;&#960;&#8049;&#965;&#963;&#952;&#969;).

There is a serious dispute about the reading of the Greek text.&#160; I have followed Routh, who, relying on three the Collectio of John of Antioch and the Latin versions, reads &#949;&#7984; &#948;&#8050; &#946;&#948;&#949;&#955;&#8059;&#963;&#963;&#959;&#953;&#957;&#964;&#959; instead of the &#949;&#7984; &#948;&#8050; &#946;&#959;&#8059;&#955;&#959;&#953;&#957;&#964;&#959; of the ordinary text, which as Bp. Beveridge had pointed out before has no meaning unless a &#956;&#8052; be introduced.

Zonaras points out that the canon chiefly refers to the Love feasts.

I cannot agree with Hefele in his translation of the last clause.&#160; He makes the reference to &#8220;this present canon,&#8221; I think it is clearly to the 53 (52) of the so-called Canons of the Apostles, &#964;&#8183; &#954;&#945;&#957;&#8057;&#957;&#953; &#8220;the well-known Canon.&#8221;