Section 538
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56 COUNCIL OF NICE. formable to the ecclesiastical canon, the vote of the majority shall prevail. CANON Nil.— Of the Bishop of JElia. (Jerusalem.)* Since custom and ancient tradition require that the bishop of be held in veneration, let him have the next degree of honor to the metropolitan, without prejudice to the appropriate authority of the latter. CANON VIII. — Of those who are called Cathari, that is, the Pure. Respecting those, formerly calling themselves Cathari, who have acceded to the holy Catholic and apostolic Church, it seemed good to the great and holy council, that receiving the im position of hands, they may thus continue in the clerical order. But above all things, it is proper that they should promise in writing to approve and follow the regulations of the holy apostolic Church, that is, that they will communicate with those who may have contracted a second marriage, and with those who, in a period of persecution, have fallen from the truth, but to whom a time is fixed and a season appointed for repentance ; that they may observe in all things the decrees of the Catholic Church. * Jerusalem having been destroyed by Titus, a colony was afterwards established on its ruins by Adrian, and the place was then called ^Elia. As a new city, it was of no great importance, and was under tho jurisdiction of Caesarea, the me tropolis of Palestine. The Christian world, however, was not unmindful of its antiquity, and of the interesting events of which it was the scene. Especially was it remembered as the sacred spot, where that divine religion, which was one day to be extended throughout the world, was first proclaimed by our Lord and his apostles. For these reasons the bishop of Jerusalem was thus distinguished, and Eusebius has preserved the succession of prelates in that city, as well as those in the other apostolic