Canon XII.
is decreed that they who have
offered sacrifice before their baptism, and were afterwards baptized, may be promoted to orders, inasmuch as they have been cleansed.
Notes.
Whoso has sacrificed before his baptism, after it shall
be guiltless.
This canon does not speak generally of all those who
sacrificed before baptism; for if a heathen sacrificed before having
embraced Christianity, he certainly could not be reproached for it
after his admission. It was quite a different case with a
catechumen, who had already declared for Christianity, but who, during
the persecution had lost courage, and sacrificed. In this case it
might be asked whether he could still be admitted to the
priesthood. The Council decided that a baptized catechumen could
afterwards be promoted to holy orders.