1
The patriarch is a chief shepherd and judge within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, not an owner of the people or of the property entrusted to the assembly.
2
Selection requires established character, knowledge, sound judgment, freedom from notorious corruption, and capacity to preserve unity without suppressing truth.
3
Election shall not be purchased. A ruler may protect the lawful process but shall not manufacture spiritual qualification by command.
4
The patriarch shall hear bishops, preserve received canons, correct disorder, and avoid private retaliation disguised as discipline.
5
He shall distinguish what belongs to faith from what belongs to mutable administration. He may order circumstances of governance only within the bounds of the received rule.
6
If he becomes openly corrupt, violent, or destructive of the office, lawful examination is not rebellion; office itself is accountable to the norm it administers.