Ancyra, Synod of

ANCYRA, an-sɑi´ra SYNOD OF: A council held at Ancyra (the modern Angora, 215 m. e.s.e. of Constantinople), a considerable town in the center of Galatia. The year is not stated, but it was probably soon after the downfall of Maximinus had freed the Eastern Church from persecution, presumably in 314. Nine canons of the synod deal with the treatment of the lapsed. The tenth permits deacons to marry if they have expressed such an intention at their ordination. The thirteenth forbids chorepiscopi to ordain priests and deacons. From the eighteenth canon it may be inferred that the episcopate of Asia Minor was inclined to appoint bishops without regard to the right of election on the part of the people, and that the latter frequently succeeded in opposing such appointments; it also provides that bishops named for any church but not received by it must remain members of the presbytery to which they had belonged, and not seek an opportunity to exercise episcopal jurisdiction elsewhere.

(A. Hauck).

Bibliography: Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, i. 219-242, Eng. transl., i. 199-222.