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The Sinodos

Section 52

Statute 50. Therefore also let not the king despise any of those who are below him, the magistrates, nor the officers who obey him. For if there were not subjects, magistrates would be useless, and if there were not magistrates, the kingdom would not exist for the king. And let not the bishops magnify themselves above the deacons, nor the presbyters again above the people who are below them, because of them consists* the constitution of the assembly ; nor shall they say : The bishops and presbyters are taken out of the people. And to be Christians is of ourselves, but (to be) Aposde or bishop or whatever other (order) there may be is not of ourselves but of God who gives grace. As much as this then we ourselves say concerning those who have graces imparted to them, and this further we say, going on in speaking.

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Text. The Rev. G. Horner, The Statutes of the Apostles, 1904. Public domain by age. Horner's English of the Ge'ez Sinodos he prints in the same volume, recovered from the scan by the word coordinates rather than by its plain OCR. Not audited: no independent reference counts exist for this text. His own numbering is kept, including the two statutes he numbers 40.