Note 83 — III. THE COUNCIL OF NICÆA.
Reading edition
I give the version of Dionysius Exiguus: “Interdixit per omnia magna synodus, non episcopo, non presbytero, non diacono, nec alicui omnino qui in clero est, licere subintroductam habere mulierem; nisi forte matrem, aut sororem, aut amitam, vel eas tantum personas quæ suspiciones effugiunt.”
An Arabic version of the Nicene canons specially limits the prohibition to bishops, and to unmarried priests and deacons.—“Decernimus ut episcopi non habitent cum mulieribus.... Idem decernitur de omni sacerdote cœlibe, idemque de diaconis qui sine uxore sunt.” (Harduin. Concil. I. 463.)—This expresses nearly the discipline of the Greek church.