§ 68. Physical Qualities

To physical qualities belong: 1) a sound body, and in particular, that the person be neither deaf nor blind.[1] But certain lesser bodily defects do not stand in the way of a candidate receiving ordination, if he is otherwise worthy of it.[2] In the canons that speak of this, the principle is stressed that ‘a bodily defect does not defile a man, but a defect of the soul does’[3]; and accordingly church authority judges which bodily defects it must take into account. And since the chief point in this matter is that ‘there be no hindrance in church affairs,’[4] all bodily defects that will not later hinder the regular course of church affairs are left without regard by the church authority; whereas, conversely, the greatest attention is given, and must be given, when some bodily defect might disturb these affairs—for example, when someone suffers from epilepsy, or is crippled, and so forth.[5] Here it must also be taken into account that a bodily defect not give occasion for scandal—for example, when someone is without a nose, or limps badly; and in such a case the guiding principle must be that the outward dignity of the hierarchy itself be preserved.

2) The prescribed age. Entrance into the hierarchy is an act of the free will of the one who wishes to enter it,[6] and at the same time, in one entering the hierarchy, it must be presupposed as certain that he is firm in his religious convictions and understands the significance and importance of the service to which he devotes himself. For the sake of both the one and the other, it is necessary that the person have reached a mature age—that he be of such years that he can express his free will deliberately, and that the Church have assurance that he is conscious of the service he undertakes. Church legislation, from the earliest times, has given attention to this question, and the prescriptions of that legislation are for the most part preserved to this day. For a bishop, the first ordinance concerning the age for ordination we find in the Apostolic Constitutions, according to which a candidate for the episcopate must have at least 50 years.[7] By Justinian’s legislation these years were afterward reduced: first it was prescribed that a candidate for the episcopate must have 35 years,[8] and then again, that he must have passed at least 30 years.[9] For a presbyter, likewise, 30 years are required;[10] for a deacon—25 years;[11] for a subdeacon—20 years.[12] As regards these last—that is, presbyters, deacons, and subdeacons—the canons ordain that the prescribed age must be strictly observed, for ‘whoever is appointed to any sacred degree before the established years shall be deposed,’[13] even though the person be in every other respect worthy.[14] As regards the lower degrees, there are no years prescribed in the canons, but for readers a Novel of Justinian is cited, according to which one may become a reader at 18 years of age.[15] Today, for the lower hierarchical degrees, it is left to the church authorities to judge what age the candidates in question must have, while as regards the presbyteral and diaconal degree, the old canonical ordinances are, in general, still observed.[16]