The Canons of the
Holy Fathers Assembled at Gangra, Which Were Set Forth After the
Council of Nice150
| 150 This is the title in the
Paris Edition of Zonaras. The Bodleian text simply reads
“The Canons of the Synod at Gangra.” |
.
Canon I.
If any one shall condemn
marriage, or abominate and condemn a woman who is a believer and
devout, and sleeps with her own husband, as though she could not enter
the Kingdom [of heaven] let him be anathema.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon I.
Anathema to him who disregards legitimate marriage.
When one considers how deeply the early church was
impressed with those passages of Holy Scripture which she understood to
set forth the superiority of the virgin over the married estate, it
ceases to be any source of astonishment that some should have run into
the error of condemning marriage as sinful. The saying of our
Blessed Lord with reference to those who had become “eunuchs for
the kingdom of heaven’s sake,”151
and
those words of St.
Paul “He that giveth his
virgin in
marriage
doeth well, but he that giveth her not in
marriage doeth
better,”
152
together with the
striking passage in the Revelation of those that were “not
defiled with
women for they are
virgins,”
153
were considered as settling the matter for the new dispensation.
The earliest writers are filled with the
praises of
virginity.
Its superiority underlies the
allegories of the Hermes
Pastor;
154
| 154 Hermes Pastor.
Sim. x., xj. |
St. Justin Martyr speaks of “many men
and
women of sixty and seventy years of age who from their childhood
have been the
disciples of
Christ, and have kept themselves
uncorrupted,”
155
| 155 Justin. M. Apol.
i. 15. |
and from that time on
there is an ever-swelling tide of
praise; the reader must be referred
to SS. Cyprian, Athanasius, Cyril of
Jerusalem, Jerome, Augustine,
etc., etc. In fact the
Council of Trent (it cannot be denied)
only gave expression to the view of all
Christian antiquity both East
and West, when it
condemned those who denied that “it is more
blessed to remain
virgin or celibate than to be joined in
marriage.”
156
| 156 Conc.
Trid.,sessio xxiv. De Matr., can. x. It is
curious to note that while Eustathius and his followers held all
marriage to be sinful, Luther (at least at one time) taught that it was
a sin for anyone to remain unmarried who could “increase and
multiply!” The Synod of Gangra in this canon sets forth the
unchanging position of the Catholic Church upon this point. |
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici,
Gratian’s Decretum, Pars I., Distinc. xxx., c. xii.
(Isidore’s version), and again Dist. xxxi., c. viii.
(Dionysius’s version). Gratian, however, supposes that the
canon is directed against the Manichæans and refers to the
marriage of priests, but in both matters he is mistaken, as the Roman
Correctors and Van Espen point out.
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