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Canonical
Epistle.121
| 121 Of
the holy Gregory, archbishop of Neo-Cæsareia, surnamed
Thaumaturgus, concerning those who, in the inroad of the barbarians,
ate things sacrificed to idols, or offended in certain other
matters. Gallandi, iii. p. 400. [Written a.d. 258 or 262.] There are scholia in Latin
by Theodorus Balsamon and Joannes Zonaras on these canons. The
note of the former on the last canon may be cited:—The present
saint has defined shortly five several positions for the penitent; but
he has not indicated either the times appointed for their exercise, or
the sins for which discipline is determined. Basil the Great,
again, has handed down to us an accurate account of these things in his
canonical epistles. [Elucidation II.] Yet he, too, has
referred to episcopal decision the matter of recovery through penalties
[i.e., to the decision of his comprovincial bishops, as in
Cyprian’s example. See vol. v. p. 415, Elucidation XIII.;
also Elucidation I. p. 20, infra. |
————————————
Canon I.
The meats are no burden to
us, most holy father,122
| 122
[Elucidation III. p. 20.] | if
the captives ate things which their conquerors set before them,
especially since there is one report from all, viz., that the
barbarians who have made inroads into our parts have not sacrificed to
idols. For the apostle says, “Meats for the belly, and the
belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and
them.”123
But the
Saviour also, who cleanseth all meats, says, “Not that which
goeth into a man defileth the man, but that which cometh
out.”124
And this
meets the case of the captive women defiled by the barbarians, who
outraged their bodies. But if the previous life of any such
person convicted him of going, as it is written, after the eyes of
fornicators, the habit of fornication evidently becomes an object of
suspicion also in the time of captivity. And one ought not
readily to have communion with such women in prayers. If any one,
however, has lived in the utmost chastity, and has shown in time past a
manner of life pure and free from all suspicion, and now falls into
wantonness through force of necessity, we have an example for our
guidance,—namely, the instance of the damsel in Deuteronomy, whom
a man finds in the field, and forces her and lies with her.
“Unto the damsel,” he says, “ye shall do nothing;
there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man
riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this
matter: the damsel cried, and there was none to help
her.”125
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