(CE:1785a)
NEOCAESAREA, COUNCIL OF, synod held during the period of toleration for the Christians (313-c. 321) in the reign of Licinius. The council's canons deal mainly with moral questions and indicate the ecclesiastical concern with sexual issues at this time. Other canons deal with the catechumenate, with the age for ordination to the priesthood (not below thirty), and with the status of the chorepiscopi (country bishops). Though none of the canons refers, specifically to Egypt, their prescriptions passed into the general canon law of the East, and demonstrate the underlying ascetic temper of the church in the East at the time the monastic movement emerged in Egypt.
W. H. C. FREND
