SYNOD OF

See also:

• LAODICEA
• SYNOD OF LAODICEA

LAODICEA  , held at Laodicea ad Lycum in Phrygia, some time between 343 and 381 (so Hefele; but Baronius argues for 314, and others for a date as late as 399), adopted sixty canons, chiefly disciplinary, which were declared ecumenical by the council of Chalcedon, 451 . The most significant canons are those directly affecting the clergy, wherein the clergy appear as a privileged class, far above the laity, but with sharply differentiated and carefully graded orders within itself . For example, the priests are not to be chosen by the people; penitents are not to be present at ordinations (lest they should hear the failings of candidates discussed); bishops are to be appointed by the metropolitan and his suffragan; sub-deacons may not distribute the elements of the Eucharist; clerics are forbidden to leave a diocese without the bishop's permission . Other canons treat of intercourse with heretics, admission of penitent heretics, baptism, fasts, Lent, angel-worship (for-bidden as idolatrous) and the canonical books, from which the Apocrypha and Revelation are wanting . See Mansi ii . 563-614; Hardouin i . 777-792; Hefele, 2nd ed., i . 746-777 (Eng. trans. ii . 295-325) . (T . F .