Page:History of the First Council of Nice.djvu/105

Rh They enacted forty-one Canons. The thirty-sixth was as follows:

Besides the Canonical Scriptures, nothing shall be read in the Church under the title of "divine writings." The Canonical books are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the four Looks of Kings, the two Books of Chronicles, Job, the Psalms of David, the five Books of Solomon, the Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Tobias, Judith, Esther, two Books of Esdras, two of Maccabees.

The books of the New Testament are: The Four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Paul, one Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, two Epistles of Peter, three of John, one of James, one of Jude, and the Revelation of John.

Concerning the confirmation of this Canon, the Church on the other side of the sea shall be consulted.

The acts of martyrs shall also be read on their anniversaries.

The reports of discussions at this Synod were all lost, only abridgments of their acts being now extant.

There was a work translated into Latin about the year A. D. 500, by Dionysius the Less, of Rome, which was called "The Apostolical Canons," an old Greek collection of uncertain date and authorship, but supposed to have been used early in the fourth century. It contained eighty-four Canons. (Bev. Pandecta Canonum.) The style of the work is that of the third century. The origin of most of these Canons is unknown. However, they were derived partly from the Synods of the Church. The eighty-fourth Canon says that the books which were held venerable and sacred by all our clergy and laity, are as follows:

Of the Old Testament: The five books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, four Books of Kings, two of Chronicles, Esdras, Esther, Judith, three of Maccabees, Job, one hundred and forty Psalms, three books of Solomon, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, sixteen Prophets, the Wisdom of Sirach.

Of the New Testament: The Four Evangelists, Paul's fourteen Epistles, two of Peter, three of John, one of James, one of Jude, two of Clement, the Constitutions of the Churches and the Acts of the Apostles.—Hefele.

Dr. Von Drey, author of a learned work upon these Canons, thinks this eighty-fourth the least ancient of any of them. Some writers call this the eighty-fifth instead of eighty-fourth Canon.

Mosheim says (Eccl. Hist., book chap. 2, sec. 19), "The Apostolic Canons are eighty-live ecclesiastical laws, and exhibit the principles of discipline received in the Greek and Oriental Churches, in the second and third centuries.

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