§ 110. The Duties of Diocesan Bishops

All those rights of diocesan bishops which we set out in § 108 are, in the nature of things, nothing other than so many duties which divine and canonical law lay upon bishops. To the bishop is given the name of vladika (δεσπότης, dominus), which, however, he is not in fact; rather he is only the overseer and guardian of the Christian people entrusted to him, for whom he must answer to God. This too is signified by the very name ‘bishop’ (ἐπίσκοπος, inspector, custos). Zonaras, commenting on the 58th apostolic canon, writes: ‘The very name of bishop reminds him to be watchful (εἰς νῆψιν αὐτὸν διεγείρει), for he is called overseer (σκοπός), and an overseer must always be on watch and never fall into negligence. For this reason the bishop’s throne is placed in the sanctuary in an elevated place, so that he may survey from on high the people entrusted to him and oversee them (ἐπισκοπεῖν) with all diligence.’[1] Balsamon says the same.[2] As every office of oversight is, in its essence, only a complex of definite duties, so it is likewise with the office of bishop, and all the aforementioned rights, and others mentioned in the canons, are at the same time duties that bind him as spiritual superior of his diocese. Besides those duties, the canons lay upon the bishop the following as well:

1. In every diocese there is a fixed city in which the bishop’s seat must be, where the cathedral, or, in the narrower sense, the episcopal church, is found. In that city the diocesan bishop is bound to reside continuously and without interruption (κατὰ συνέχειαν καὶ ἀδιακόπως), nor may he by his own will move his residence to any other place in his diocese.[3] He may not, without a justified cause (namely, when summoned to the council of bishops or to the imperial court), be absent from the diocese for more than three weeks.[4] Should his absence from the diocese exceed that time and extend beyond six months, then, by the ordinance of canon 16 of the Ninth Particular Council [First-Second Council], such a bishop must be altogether deprived of his episcopal rank, and another bishop set in his place.[5]

2. He is bound to be obedient to the canons and to other lawfully issued ordinances, both of the Church and of the state, insofar as the latter’s ordinances agree with the aims of the Church; and in cases of doubt as to the true sense of some canonical or church-civil ordinance, he is bound to follow the interpretation of authoritative jurists, or to seek clarification from the competent superior authority.[6]

3. He is bound to respect the lawfully established diocesan administrative institutions, and in matters falling within the competence of those institutions, to proceed in accordance with the statutes of those same institutions.[7]

4. That the bishop, as high priest and supreme shepherd of souls in his diocese, must distinguish himself in his own life by all the Christian virtues in the fullest sense, is discussed at length by the science of pastoral theology. In canon law, special attention in this regard is given to his domestic life. We have said (§ 71) that a bishop may not be married; but neither may he keep in his house any strange woman at all, in order—as the canons say—to forestall every occasion of reproach (διὰ τὸ ἀνεπίληπτον, ut omnis reprehensionis occasio vitetur).[8] Canon 3 of the First Ecumenical Council forbids a bishop to keep a strange woman in his house, and permits him only to keep his mother, sister, or aunt, and, of strangers, only such women as are free from every suspicion (πᾶσαν ὑποψίαν διαπεφευγυῖαν, quae omnem suspicionem effugiunt). Canon 5 of the Trullan Council ordains that any bishop who acts against the aforesaid Nicene canon shall be deposed (καθαιρείσθω); and the Seventh Ecumenical Council expressly mentions episcopal residences as places forbidden to strange women who dwell there in service. ‘That women should reside in bishops’ houses (ἐν ἐπισκοπείοις, in episcopiis)’—says canon 18 of that council—‘is the cause of every suspicion,’ and it ordains that a bishop who permits this in his house shall be punished (ἐπιτιμάσθω) and, if he remains obstinate, shall be deposed (καθαιρείσθω, deponatur). The same canon further ordains that a bishop, even while traveling and obliged to stop in some place, may not allow a woman to attend on him, but that all women must for that time be sent away to some other place.[9]

5. The bishop is bound at all times and on every occasion to instruct the clergy and people entrusted to him, and if he does not do so, by the ordinance of the 58th apostolic canon, let him be suspended (ἀφοριζέσθω, segregetur), and, if he persists in negligence, let him be deposed (καθαιρείσθω, deponatur). Zonaras, commenting on this canon, writes as follows on this duty of the bishop: ‘On every bishop lies the unalterable duty to instruct the people entrusted to him in the dogmas of true religion and to lead them to right faith and an honest life, for God says through the prophet to the elders of the people: if you do not warn and do not speak so as to turn back the wicked man from his wicked way, that he may live, the wicked man shall indeed die for his own iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand (Ezek. 3:18). Accordingly the bishop who neglects preaching shall be suspended (that is, deprived of his office and the exercise of his priestly ministrations forbidden him for a fixed time), and, if he persists in negligence even after that, shall be deposed (that is, deprived of holy orders altogether).’[10] Canon 19 of the Trullan Council notes the bishop’s duty to instruct clergy and people every day (ἐν πάσῃ ἡμέρᾳ), and especially on Sundays (ἐν ταῖς κυριακαῖς), and prescribes at the same time what and how the bishop must preach.[11]

6. In accordance with this teaching duty of his, the bishop must frequently send pastoral letters to the clergy and people entrusted to him, instructing them in the Christian truths and thereby keeping them in living contact with himself.[12]

7. The bishop must be gentle in his dealings with everyone, above all with his own clergy. This applies especially to the case where a bishop, in a moment of irritation and without a justified cause, suspends or deposes one of his clergy. This matter is dealt with by canon 14 of the Council of Carthage, which comes to the aid of clergy who consider themselves unjustly condemned, granting them the right to appeal to the competent metropolitan, that is, to bring the matter before the council of bishops for decision. In such a case, while the matter is being examined by the council of bishops, the bishop who has justly or unjustly condemned a cleric must, by the ordinance of the said canon, calmly allow his decision to be subjected to review and either confirmed or altered, for this is required by the very justice that must distinguish a bishop in judging the clergy under him, as well as by the standing and significance of episcopal judgment itself. While this review is pending, and until the metropolitan has decided on the sentence the bishop has pronounced concerning some cleric under him, that cleric may not, says the canon, presume to resume communion of his own accord, but must remain under the penalty imposed on him by the bishop, for otherwise, under the pretext of seeking a new trial, or of recourse, good order in the Church might be weakened, and the most just sentences that bishops pronounce by their authority over the clergy under them might be frustrated. And should such a condemned cleric begin to speak against the bishop who condemned him, and proudly and insolently assert his own rights and declare that he has been wronged and unjustly condemned, in such a case, says the canon, that cleric must be subjected to severe admonition and taught that he is bound to be obedient and submit to the one who has authority to command, and must carry out without objection every order of his own bishop.[13]

8. As regards property law, the canons lay upon the bishop the duty: a) to keep strict oversight of how church property is managed and whether that property is applied to the purposes for which it is intended, for he is answerable both to God and to men should anything belonging to the Church and dedicated to God be lost (τὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας καὶ τῷ θεῷ ἀφορισθέντα)[14]; b) the bishop is bound to prevent every attempt by anyone to have church property sold or ceded to the secular authority, and must always watch that all church property is kept unimpaired;[15] c) likewise the bishop is bound to prevent every attempt to secularize monasteries and monastic estates, and, should some land happen to yield no benefit and no profit be derived from it, the bishop is bound to see that that same land does not fall into the hands of the secular authorities (κατὰ τόπον ἄρχουσιν), but only into those of sacred persons;[16] d) the bishop is bound to take care that everything belonging to his own see (τῆς οἰκείας ἐπισκοπῆς, proprii episcopatus), that is, to the cathedral church and the residence in which he lives, is kept unimpaired;[17] e) the canons likewise prescribe what is to become of the bishop’s own private property. A bishop has a personal right to his own possessions, and that possession may not be diminished for the benefit of church property in general or of the property of the see; but he may not dispose of that property of his own indiscriminately according to his own will. This is granted him only in respect of that property which he has acquired independently of his office in the Church, that is, by inheritance or by some other private means, whether before or after he became bishop; but as to what he acquires from the revenues of his see and of his church office, he has no right to dispose of it for the benefit of his own relatives or of any other private persons, but must bequeath or donate it to charitable purposes, or to the church in which he was bishop.[18] Nor may the bishop deal freely even with his own private property, for he may not give or bequeath it to persons who are not of the Orthodox faith, even should they be his own kinsmen, and should he do this, let him be anathema even after death (καὶ μετὰ θάνατον ἀνάθεμα).[19]

9. Besides the aforesaid duties, the bishop is bound also by duties toward the state and the state authority. Holy Scripture commands that every soul be subject to the ruling authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God, and whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God (Rom. 13:1-3). From the duty to be subject to the authorities, and in the first place to the sovereign (1 Pet. 2:17), no one in the state can be exempt, nor therefore the bishop either, though he be a prince of the Church,[20] for he too is a subject of the state, in every respect equal to all other subjects of the state. The canons too prescribe the bishop’s duty of submission to the sovereign, and he who insults the sovereign or the ruler of the people shall be deposed (εἴ τις ὑβρίσοι βασιλέα ἢ ἄρχοντα, καθαιρείσθω), says apostolic canon 84.[21]