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| To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons.
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Letter CXCIX.2692
Canonica
Secunda.
To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons.
I wrote some time ago in
reply to the questions of your reverence, but I did not send the
letter, partly because from my long and dangerous illness I had not
time to do so; partly because I had no one to send with it. I
have but few men with me who are experienced in travelling and fit for
service of this kind. When you thus learn the causes of my delay,
forgive me. I have been quite astonished at your readiness to
learn and at your humility. You are entrusted with the office of
a teacher, and yet you condescend to learn, and to learn of me, who
pretend to no great knowledge. Nevertheless, since you consent,
on account of your fear of God, to do what another man might hesitate
to do, I am bound for my part to go even beyond my strength in aiding
your readiness and righteous zeal.
XVII. You asked me about the presbyter
Bianor—can he be admitted among the clergy, because of his
oath? I know that I have already given the clergy of Antioch a
general sentence in the case of all those who had sworn with him;
namely, that they should abstain from the public congregations, but
might perform priestly functions in private.2693
| 2693 The Ben. Ed.
note: “Sæpe vituperantur apud sanctos Patres,
qui sacra in privatis ædibus sive domesticis oratoriis
celebrant. Hinc Irenæus, lib. iv. cap. 26,
oportere ait eos, qui absistunt a principali successione et
quocunque loco colligunt, suspectos habere, vel quasi hæreticos
et malæ sententiæ, vel quasi scindentes et elatos et sibi
placentes; aut rursus ut hypocritas quæstus gratia et vanæ
gloriæ hoc operantes. Basilius, in Psalm xxvii. n.
3: Non igitur extra sanctam hanc aulam adorare oporet, sed
intra ipsam, etc. Similia habet Eusebius in eundem
psalmum, p. 313. Sic etiam Cyrillus Alexandrinus in
libro adversus Anthropomorphitas, cap. 12, et in libro decimo
De adorat., p. 356. Sed his in locis perspicuum est
hæreticorum aut schismaticorum synagogas notari, vel quas vocat
Basilius, can. 1. παρασυναγωγάς,
sive illicitos conventus a presbyteris aut episcopis rebellibus
habitos, aut a populis disciplinæ expertibus. At interdum
graves causæ suberant, cur sacra in privatis ædibus
impermissa non essent. Ipsa persecutio necessitatem hujus rei
sæpe afferebat, cum catholici episcoporum hæreticorum
communionem fugerent, ut Sebastiæ ecclesiarum aditu
prohiberentur. Minime ergo mirum, si presbyteris Antiochenis
eam sacerdotii perfunctionem Basilius reliquit, quæ et ad
jurisjurandi religionem et ad temporum molestias accommodata
videbatur. Synodus Laodicena vetat, can. 58, in
domibus fieri oblationem ab episcopis vel presbyteris.
Canon 31. Trullanus id clericis non interdicit, modo
accedat episcopi consenus. Non inusitata fuisse ejusmodi sacra
in domesticis oratoriis confirmat canon Basilii 27, ubi
vetatur, ne presbyter illicitis nuptiis implicantus privatim aut
publice sacerdotii munere fungatur. Eustathius Sebastenus
Ancyræ cum Arianis in domibus communicavit, ut ex pluribus
Basilii epistolis discimus, cum apertam ab eis communionem impetrare
non posset.” | Moreover, he has the further liberty
for the performance of his ministerial functions, from the fact that
his sacred duties lie not at Antioch, but at Iconium; for, as you have
written to me yourself, he has chosen to live rather at the latter than
at the former place. The man in question may, therefore, be
received; but your reverence must require him to shew repentance for
the rash readiness of the oath which he took before the
unbeliever,2694
| 2694 Videtur
infidelis ille vir unus aliquis fuisse ex potentioribus Arianis
ejusque furor idcirco in presbyteros Antiochenos incitatus quod hi
ecclesiam absente Meletio regerent, ac maximam civium partem in
illius fide et communione retinerent. | being unable to
bear the trouble of that small peril.
XVIII. Concerning fallen virgins, who, after
professing a chaste life before the Lord, make their vows vain, because
they have fallen under the lusts of the flesh, our fathers, tenderly2695
| 2695 ἁπαλῶς, with four
mss., al. ἁπλῶς. | and meekly making allowance for the
infirmities of them that fall, laid down that they might be received
after a year, ranking them with the digamists. Since, however,
by God’s grace the Church grows mightier as she advances, and
the order of virgins is becoming more numerous, it is my judgment
that careful heed should be given both to the act as it appears upon
consideration, and to the mind of Scripture, which may be discovered
from the context. Widowhood is inferior to virginity;
consequently the sin of the widows comes far behind that of the
virgins. Let us see what Paul writes to Timothy.
“The young widows refuse: for when they have begun to
wax wanton against Christ, they will marry; having damnation because
they have cast off their first faith.”2696
If, therefore, a widow lies under a
very heavy charge, as setting at naught her faith in Christ, what
must we think of the virgin, who is the bride of Christ, and a
chosen vessel dedicated to the Lord? It is a grave fault even
on the part of a slave to give herself away in secret wedlock and
fill the house with impurity, and, by her wicked life, to wrong her
owner; but it is forsooth far more shocking for the bride to become
an adulteress, and, dishonouring her union with the bridegroom, to
yield herself to unchaste indulgence. The widow, as being a
corrupted slave, is indeed condemned; but the virgin comes under the
charge of adultery. We call the man who lives with another
man’s wife an adulterer, and do not receive him into communion
until he has ceased from his sin; and so we shall ordain in the case
of him who has the virgin. One point, however, must be
determined beforehand, that the name virgin is given to a
woman who voluntarily devotes herself to the Lord, renounces
marriage, and embraces a life of holiness. And we admit
professions dating from the age of full intelligence.2697
| 2697 “Hoc
Basilii decretum de professionis ætate citatur in canone
quadragesimo synodi in Trullo” (a.d. 691) “et decem et septem anni quos
Basilius requirit, ad decem rediguntur.” | For it is not right in such cases
to admit the words of mere children. But a girl of sixteen or
seventeen years of age, in full possession of her faculties, who has
been submitted to strict examination, and is then constant, and
persists in her entreaty to be admitted, may then be ranked among
the virgins, her profession ratified, and its violation rigorously
punished. Many girls are brought forward by their parents and
brothers, and other kinsfolk, before they are of full age, and have
no inner impulse towards a celibate life. The object of the
friends is simply to provide for themselves. Such women as
these must not be readily received, before we have made public
investigation of their own sentiments.
XIX. I do not recognise the profession of men,
except in the case of those who have enrolled themselves in the order
of monks, and seem to have secretly adopted the celibate life.
Yet in their case I think it becoming that there should be a previous
examination, and that a distinct profession should be received from
them, so that whenever they may revert to the life of the pleasures of
the flesh, they may be subjected to the punishment of fornicators.
XX. I do not think that any condemnation
ought to be passed on women who professed virginity while in heresy,
and then afterwards preferred marriage. “What things soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the
law.”2698
Those who
have not yet put on Christ’s yoke do not recognise the laws of
the Lord. They are therefore to be received in the church, as
having remission in the case of these sins too, as of all, from
their faith in Christ. As a general rule, all sins formerly
committed in the catechumenical state are not taken into
account.2699
| 2699 “Male
Angli in Pandectis et alit interpretes reddunt, quæ
in catechumenica vita fiunt. Non enim dicit Basilius
ea non puniri quæ in hoc statu peccantur, sed tantum peccata
ante baptismum commissa baptismo expiari, nec jam esse judicio
ecclesiastico obnoxia. Hinc observat Zonaras non pugnare hunc
canonem cum canone quinto Neocæsariensi, in quo pœnæ
catechumenis peccantibus decernuntur.” | The Church
does not receive these persons without baptism; and it is very
necessary that in such cases the birthrights should be
observed.
XXI. If a man living with a wife is not
satisfied with his marriage and falls into fornication, I account him a
fornicator, and prolong his period of punishment. Nevertheless,
we have no canon subjecting him to the charge of adultery, if the sin
be committed against an unmarried woman. For the adulteress, it
is said, “being polluted shall be polluted,”2700
and she shall not return to her
husband: and “He that keepeth an adulteress is a fool and
impious.”2701
He, however,
who has committed fornication is not to be cut off from the society of
his own wife. So the wife will receive the husband on his return
from fornication, but the husband will expel the polluted woman from
his house. The argument here is not easy, but the custom has so
obtained.2702
| 2702 “Non
solus Basilius hanc consuetudinem secutus. Auctor
constitutionum apostolicarum sic loquitur lib. vi.
cap. 14: Qui corruptam retinet, naturæ legem
violat: quando quidem qui retinet adulteram, stultus est et
impius. Abscinde enim eam, inquit, a carnibus tuis.
Nam adjutrix non est, sed insidiatrix, quæ mentem ad alium
declinarit. Canon 8, Neocæsariensis laicis,
quorum uxores adulterii convictæ, aditum ad ministerium
ecclesiasticum claudit; clericis depositionis pœnam irrogat, si
adulteram nolint dimittere. Canon 65 Eliberitanus sic
habet: Si cujus clerici uxor fuerit mæchata, et
scierit eam maritus suus mæchari, et non eam statim projecerit,
nec in fine accipiat communionem. Hermas lib. i,
c. 2, adulteram ejici jubet, sed tamen pœnitentem
recipi. S. Augustinus adulterium legitimam esse dimittendi
causam pronuntiat, sed non necessariam, lib. ii. De Adulter.
nuptiis, cap. 5, n. 13.” |
XXII. Men who
keep women carried off by violence, if they carried them off when
betrothed to other men, must not be received before removal of the
women and their restoration to those to whom they were first
contracted, whether they wish to receive them, or to separate from
them. In the case of a girl who has been taken when not
betrothed, she ought first to be removed, and restored to her own
people, and handed over to the will of her own people whether parents,
or brothers, or any one having authority over her. If they choose
to give her up, the cohabitation may stand; but, if they refuse, no
violence should be used. In the case of a man having a wife by
seduction, be it secret or by violence, he must be held guilty of
fornication. The punishment of fornicators is fixed at four
years. In the first year they must be expelled from prayer, and
weep at the door of the church; in the second they may be received to
sermon; in the third to penance; in the fourth to standing with the
people, while they are withheld from the oblation. Finally, they
may be admitted to the communion of the good gift.
XXIII. Concerning men who marry two sisters,
or women who marry two brothers a short letter of mine has been
published, of which I have sent a copy to your reverence.2703
| 2703 Probably
Letter clx. to Diodorus is referred to. | The man who has taken his own
brother’s wife is not to be received until he have separated from
her.
XXIV. A widow whose name is in the list of
widows, that is, who is supported2704
| 2704 Διακονουμένην.
So the Ben. Ed. Another possible rendering is “received
into the order of deaconesses.” | by the Church,
is ordered by the Apostle to be supported no longer when she
marries.2705
There is no special rule for a widower. The
punishment appointed for digamy may suffice. If a widow who is
sixty years of age chooses again to live with a husband, she shall be
held unworthy of the communion of the good gift until she be moved no
longer by her impure desire. If we reckon her before sixty years,
the blame rests with us, and not with the woman.
XXV. The man who retains as his wife the woman
whom he has violated, shall be liable to the penalty of rape, but it
shall be lawful for him to have her to wife.
XXVI. Fornication is not wedlock, nor yet the
beginning of wedlock. Wherefore it is best, if possible, to put
asunder those who are united in fornication. If they are set on
cohabitation, let them admit the penalty of fornication. Let them
be allowed to live together, lest a worse thing happen.
XXVII. As to the priest ignorantly involved
in an illegal marriage,2706
| 2706
“᾽Αθέσμῳ
γάμῳ.” Illicitas
nuptias. | I have made the
fitting regulation, that he may hold his seat, but must abstain from
other functions. For such a case pardon is enough. It is
unreasonable that the man who has to treat his own wounds should be
blessing another, for benediction is the imparting of holiness.
How can he who through his fault, committed in ignorance, is without
holiness, impart it to another? Let him bless neither in public
nor in private, nor distribute the body of Christ to others, nor
perform any other sacred function, but, content with his seat of
honour, let him beseech the Lord with weeping, that his sin, committed
in ignorance, may be forgiven.
XXVIII. It has seemed to me ridiculous that
any one should make a vow to abstain from swine’s flesh. Be
so good as to teach men to abstain from foolish vows and
promises. Represent the use to be quite indifferent. No
creature of God, received with thanksgiving, is to be
rejected.2707
The vow is
ridiculous; the abstinence unnecessary.
XXIX. It is especially desirable that
attention should be given to the case of persons in power who threaten
on oath to do some hurt to those under their authority. The
remedy is twofold. In the first place, let them be taught not to
take oaths at random: secondly, not to persist in their wicked
determinations. Any one who is arrested in the design of
fulfilling an oath to injure another ought to shew repentance for the
rashness of his oath, and must not confirm his wickedness under the
pretext of piety. Herod was none the better for fulfilling his
oath, when, of course only to save himself from perjury, he became the
prophet’s murderer.2708
Swearing is
absolutely forbidden,2709
and it is only
reasonable that the oath which tends to evil should be condemned.
The swearer must therefore change his mind, and not persist in
confirming his impiety. Consider the absurdity of the thing a
little further. Suppose a man to swear that he will put his
brother’s eyes out: is it well for him to
carry his oath into
action? Or to commit murder? or to break any other
commandment? “I have sworn, and I will perform
it,”2710
not to sin, but to
“keep thy righteous judgments.” It is no less our
duty to undo and destroy sin, than it is to confirm the commandment by
immutable counsels.
XXX. As to those guilty of abduction we have
no ancient rule, but I have expressed my own judgment. The period
is three years;2711
| 2711 The Ben. Ed.
point out that in Canon xxii. four years is the allotted period, as
in the case of fornicators. | the culprits and
their accomplices to be excluded from service. The act committed
without violence is not liable to punishment, whenever it has not been
preceded by violation or robbery. The widow is independent, and
to follow or not is in her own power. We must, therefore, pay no
heed to excuses.
XXXI. A woman whose husband has gone away
and disappeared, and who marries another, before she has evidence of
his death, commits adultery. Clerics who are guilty of the sin
unto death2712
| 2712 St. Basil on
Isaiah iv. calls sins wilfully committed after full knowledge
“sins unto death.” But in the same commentary he
applies the same designation to sins which lead to hell. The
sense to be applied to the phrase in Canon xxxii. is to be learnt,
according to the Ben. note, from Canons lxix. and lxx., where a less
punishment is assigned to mere wilful sins unto death than in Canon
xxxii. | are degraded from
their order, but not excluded from the communion of the laity.
Thou shalt not punish twice for the same fault.2713
XXXIII. Let an indictment for murder be preferred
against the woman who gives birth to a child on the road and pays no
attention to it.
XXXIV. Women who had committed adultery, and
confessed their fault through piety, or were in any way convicted, were
not allowed by our fathers to be publicly exposed, that we might not
cause their death after conviction. But they ordered that they
should be excluded from communion till they had fulfilled their term of
penance.
XXXV. In the case of a man deserted by his wife,
the cause of the desertion must be taken into account. If she
appear to have abandoned him without reason, he is deserving of pardon,
but the wife of punishment. Pardon will be given to him that he
may communicate with the Church.
XXXVI. Soldiers’ wives who have married in
their husbands’ absence will come under the same principle as
wives who, when their husbands have been on a journey, have not waited
their return. Their case, however, does admit of some concession
on the ground of there being greater reason to suspect death.
XXXVII. The man who marries after abducting
another man’s wife will incur the charge of adultery for the
first case; but for the second will go free.
XXXVIII. Girls who follow against their
fathers’ will commit fornication; but if their fathers are
reconciled to them, the act seems to admit of a remedy. They are
not however immediately restored to communion, but are to be punished
for three years.
XXXIX. The woman who lives with an adulterer
is an adulteress the whole time.2714
| 2714 Or, according
to another reading, in every way. |
XL. The woman who yields to a man against her
master’s will commits fornication; but if afterwards she accepts
free marriage, she marries. The former case is fornication; the
latter marriage. The covenants of persons who are not independent
have no validity.
XLI. The woman in widowhood, who is
independent, may dwell with a husband without blame, if there is no one
to prevent their cohabitation; for the Apostle says; “but if her
husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only
in the Lord.”2715
XLII. Marriages contracted without the permission
of those in authority, are fornication. If neither father nor
master be living the contracting parties are free from blame; just as
if the authorities assent to the cohabitation, it assumes the fixity of
marriage.
XLIII. He who smites his neighbour to death is a
murderer, whether he struck first or in self defence.
XLIV. The deaconess who commits fornication with a
heathen may be received into repentance and will be admitted to the
oblation in the seventh year; of course if she be living in
chastity. The heathen who, after he has believed, takes to
idolatry, returns to his vomit. We do not, however, give up the
body of the deaconess to the use of the flesh, as being
consecrated.
XLV. If any one, after taking the name of
Christianity, insults Christ, he gets no good from the name.
XLVI. The woman who unwillingly marries a
man deserted at the time by his wife, and is afterwards repudiated,
because of the return of the former to him, commits fornication, but
involuntarily. She will, therefore, not be prohibited from
marriage; but it is better if she remain as she is.2716
| 2716 This is Can.
xciii. of the Council in Trullo. |
XLVII. Encratitæ,2717
| 2717 Generally
reckoned rather as Manichæans than as here by Basil as
Marcionites, but dualism was common to both systems. | Saccophori,2718
| 2718 A
Manichæan sect, who led a solitary life. Death is
threatened against them in a law of Theodosius dated a.d. 322 (Cod. Theod. lib. xvi.
tit. 5, leg. 9), identified by the Ben. Ed. with the
Hydroparastatæ. |
and Apotactitæ2719
| 2719 A
Manichæan sect. cf. Epiphanius ii. 18. In
the work of Macarius Magnes, published in Paris 1876, they are
identified with the Encratites. | are not regarded in the same manner as
Novatians, since in their case a canon has been pronounced, although
different; while of the former nothing has been said. All
these I re-baptize on the same principle. If among you their
re-baptism is forbidden, for the sake of some arrangement,
nevertheless let my principle prevail. Their heresy is, as it
were, an offshoot of the Marcionites, abominating, as they do,
marriage, refusing wine, and calling God’s creature
polluted. We do not therefore receive them into the Church,
unless they be baptized into our baptism. Let them not say
that they have been baptized into Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
inasmuch as they make God the author of evil, after the example of
Marcion and the rest of the heresies. Wherefore, if this be
determined on, more bishops ought to meet together in one place and
publish the canon in these terms, that action may be taken without
peril, and authority given to answers to questions of this
kind.
XLVIII. The woman who has been abandoned by
her husband, ought, in my judgment, to remain as she is. The Lord
said, “If any one leave2720
| 2720 καταλίπῃ for
ἀπολύσῃ. | his wife,
saving for the cause of fornication, he causeth her to commit
adultery;”2721
thus, by calling
her adulteress, He excludes her from intercourse with another
man. For how can the man being guilty, as having caused
adultery, and the woman, go without blame, when she is called
adulteress by the Lord for having intercourse with another
man?
XLIX. Suffering violation should not be a cause of
condemnation. So the slave girl, if she has been forced by her
own master, is free from blame.
L. There is no law as to trigamy: a
third marriage is not contracted by law. We look upon such things
as the defilements of the Church. But we do not subject them to
public condemnation, as being better than unrestrained
fornication.2722
| 2722 cf.
however Canon iv., where trigamy is called polygamy or at best a
limited fornication, and those guilty of it subjected to exclusion
from the Eucharist. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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