Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 2/Canons/Canon XIV

Canon XIV.

the canon of our holy God-bearing Fathers be confirmed in this particular also; that a presbyter be not ordained before he is thirty years of age, even if he be a very worthy man, but let him be kept back.&#160; For our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized and began to teach when he was thirty.&#160; In like manner let no deacon be ordained before he is twenty-five, nor a deaconess before she is forty.

Notes.

A presbyter thirty years of age, a deacon twenty-five, and a deaconess forty.

Compare Canon XI. of Neoc&#230;sarea.

It may be interesting to note here that by the law of the Roman Communion the canonical ages are as follows:

A subdeacon must have completed his twenty-first year, a deacon his twenty-second, a priest his twenty-fourth, and a bishop his thirtieth.&#160; None of the inferior clergy can hold a simple benefice before he has begun his fourteenth year.&#160; Ecclesiastical dignities, such as Cathedral canonries, cannot be conferred on any who have not finished the twenty-second year.&#160; A benefice to which is attached a cure of souls can be given only to one who is over twenty-four, and a diocese only to one who has completed his thirtieth year.&#160; (Vide Ferraris, Bibliotheca Prompta.)

In the Anglican Communion the ages are, in England, for a bishop &#8220;fully thirty years of age,&#8221; for a priest twenty-four, and for a deacon twenty-three: &#160; and in the United States, for a bishop thirty years of age, for a priest twenty-four, and for a deacon twenty-one.