On the illness of ministering clerics

 

Nothing will be done with temerity against the established order considering these things that are held by us in utmost veneration. [Priests] should celebrate them without even the smallest act of presumption, and perform them without interruption except for the situation when the human nature is deprived of the strength of health because of the coming of illness. [...] We decide then that when during the time of mass the holy mysteries are consecrated by priests, and a priest is taken so ill that he cannot finish the initiated mystery of consecration, a bishop or another presbyter will be allowed to finish the consecration in the already initiated office. Nothing else can be done to complete the initiated mysteries, they can only be finished by the benediction of the priest who started them, or one who follows him, because they cannot be completed unless they are performed in order. Because we are one in Christ, the change of persons makes no error, since the unity of faith ensures the successful completion [of the mysteries]. Clerics of any of the ranks shall succeed another cleric to complete his office as it was permitted to those above mentioned, and they shall not hesitate as to whether this decree lets them do that. However, so that the case of illness does not turn into the danger of presumption, no one shall celebrate mass after having a meal and having drunk, even if it was only a little, and no minister or priest shall ever dare to leave incomplete the office which he started except for the case of evident illness. If someone has the temerity to do so, he shall be punished with a sentence of excommunication.

 

(trans. M. Szada)