their faith and then wished to be accepted again, were to
be examined, and if proven sincere, were forgiven and
admitted back into the communion of the believers.
c) After deliberating the above questions, the
Council proceeded to discuss matters raised by individual
members having relevance to all of them. The outcome
was the formulation of twenty canons^9 regulating Church
matters. The third of these canons concerned the celibacy
of the clergy. Some members tended to support the idea
that celibacy should be imposed on all the ranks of the
clergy. This idea, however, was emphatically rejected by
Abba Paphnuti, Bishop of the Thebaid, who bore in his
body the marks of the Maximian persecutions. Abba
Paphnuti was held in great esteem by all members as well
as by Emperor Constantine himself.
In defending his point of view, Abba Paphnuti
declared: "We should not impose too hard a yoke on the
clergy; for marriage is honourable and blameless, as the
Apostle Paul says. We should not harm the church by an
over-exaggerated severity, for not all men can endure
absolute continence, and the relation between a man and
his wife can certainly be chaste. It is therefore right to
abide strictly by the orders of the early Church: that none
can marry except before his reception of holy orders but
not after. Let that suffice, and let the liberty received
from our fathers be safeguarded for posterity".^10 Abba
Paphnuti's words carried great weight and all present
accepted them, thus giving each clergyman the liberty to
decide for himself the mode of life he preferred.
The Coptic Church abides by this canon (as it
abides by all the Nicean canons) up to the present day. A
priest can get married while still a layman. Once he gets