Canonical Letters

Canonical Letters (called also Letters Dimissory) were granted in the early Christian Church to the country clergy who wished to remove from one diocese to another. The Council of Antioch forbade country presbyters granting such letters, but the privilege was not taken from the cho-episcopi. Such letters might be granted or refused at the will of the bishop, but no clergyman was allowed to remove from his own church or diocese without canonical letters from his own bishop.