When the Paschal fast is to be broken depends on the precise hour of our Saviour's resurrection, and this was not certainly to be known from the Four Evangelists; therefore they who have not fasted the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday before Easter, do no great thing if they fast the Friday and Saturday, and so till past three on Easter morning. But they who have fasted the whole six days, are not to be blamed if theybreak their fast after midnight.Some do notfast any of these days.
Canon II.
Menstruous women ought not to come to the Holy Table, or touch the Holy of Holies,hyperlink nor to churches, but pray elsewhere.
Note.
Balsamon notes how the canon educes the example of the woman who had had an issue of blood for twelve years and who therefore did not dare to touch the Lord, but only the "hem of his garment." He also notes thatthe question proposed, was whether Christian women should be excluded from the church and need follow the example of the Hebrews, who "when the menstrual flux was upon them, sat in a solitary place by themselves andwaited for seven days to pass, and their flux should be over."The answer given is as above.
Canon III.
They that can contain and are aged ought to judge for themselves. They have heard St. Paul say; that they should "for a time give themselves to prayer, and then come together again."
Note.
In this epitome Johnson has set forth the meaning of the canon, as understood by the Greek scholiasts, rather than translated and epitomized the canon itself.
Canon IV.
They who have had involuntary nocturnal pollutions be at their own discretion [whether to communicate or not].
Note.
The Saint ends this canon with these words: "I have given opinion on the points about which you have consulted me, not as a doctor, but in all simplicity as it is suitable the relation between us should be. And when you have examined, my most leaned son, what I have written you will let me know what seems to you better or whether you agree with my opinions. Farewell, dear son, may your ministry be in the peace of the Lord."
The Canons of the Blessed Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria, and Martyr,hyperlink Which are Found in His Sermon on Penitence.
Canon I.
The fourth Easter from the beginning of the persecution was now come; and orders, that they who did not fall till after they had endured severe torments, and have already been "Mourners" three years, after forty days' fast, are to be admitted to communion, although they have not been before received [to penance].hyperlink
Canon II.
But if they endured imprisonment only, without torments, let a year be added to their former penance.
Canon III.
If they fell voluntarily, without torments or imprisonments, but are come to repentance, four years are added to their former penance.
Canon IV.
The case of them who do not repent pronounced desperate.
Canon V.
They that used evasion, and did not right down subscribe the abnegation, or with their own hands incense the idols, but sent a heathen to do it for them, are enjoined six months' penance, though they have been pardoned by some of the Confessors.
Canon VI.
Slaves forced by their masters to incense idols, and doing it in their master's stead, are enjoined a year's penance.
Canon VII.
The masters who forced them to it, are enjoined three years' penance, as being hypocrites, and as forcing their slaves to sacrifice.
Canon VIII.
They who first fell, and afterwards recovered themselves, by professing themselves Christians, and endured torments, are forthwith admitted to communion.
Canon IX.
That they who provoked the magistrates to persecute themselves and others are to be blamed, yet not to be denied communion.
Canon X.
That clergymen, who run themselves into persecution, and fell, though they did afterward recover themselves, and suffer torments, yet are not to be admitted to perform the sacred offices.
Canon XI.
That they who prayed for them who fellafter long torments, be connived at, and we pray together with them, since they lament for what they have done, with anguish and mortification.hyperlink
Canon XII.
That they who with money purchased their ease and freedom, are to be commended.
Canon XIII.
Nor should we accuse those who ran away, and left all, though others left behind might fare the worse for it.hyperlink
Canon XIV.
That they who endured tortures, and afterwards, when they were deprived of speech and motion, had their hands forced into the fire, to offer unholy sacrifice, be placed in the Liturgy [i.e., in the diptychs] among the Confessors.
Canon XV.
Wednesday is to be fasted, because then the Jews conspired to betray Jesus; Friday, because he then suffered for us. We keep the Lord's Day as a day of joy, because then our Lord rose. Our tradition is, not to kneel on that day.
The Canonical Epistle of St. Gregory
Archbishop of Neocaesarea, Who is Called Thaumaturgus
Concerning Them That, During the Incursion of the Barbarians, Ate of Things Offered to Idols and Committed Certain Other Sins.hyperlink
Canon I.
That they who have been taken captives by the barbarians, and have eaten with them, be not treated as persons that have eaten things offered to idols; especially because it is universally reported, that they do not sacrifice to idols; nor shall those women who have been ravished by them, be treated as guilty of fornication, unless they were before of lewd lives.
Canon II.
That those Christians who plundered their brethren during the invasion. be excommunicated, lest wrath come on the people, and especially on the presidents,hyperlink who enquire not into these matters.
Canons III., IV., V.
The pretence of having found those goods, or that they themselves lost things of equal value, shall stand them in no stead, but that they be excluded from prayer.hyperlink
Canon VI.
Against those who detain them prisoners who had escaped from the barbarians, the holy manhyperlink expects that such should be thunder-struck, and therefore desires that some enquiry be made upon the spot by persons sent for this purpose.
Canon VII.
That they who joined the barbarians in their murder and ravages, or were guides or informers to them, be not permitted to be hearers, till holy men assembled together do agree in common upon what shall seem good, first to the Holy Ghost, then to themselves.
Canon VIII.
But if they discover themselves, and make restitution, they shall be admitted to be Prostrators.
Canon IX.
They that are convicted to have found (though in their own houses) anything [of their neighbours' ] left by the barbarians shall also be Prostrators; but if they shall confess themselves they shall communicate in prayer.
Canon X.
This last privilege is restrained to such as demand nothing as a reward for their discovery, and salvage, or under any pretence whatsoever.
Canon XI.
The station of Mourners is without the gate of the oratory; the station of the Hearers is within the oratory, in the porch with the catechumens; the station of Prostrators is within the door of the temple; the station of Co-slanders is among the communicants; the last is the participation of Holy Mysteries.hyperlink
Footnotes
1 Johnson says this was about the vear of grace 240, after the Goths had ravaged Asia, duriug the reign of Gallienus. The letter. he thinks, was an Encyclical sent to every bishop of his province, by Euphrosynus. who was one of these bishops and whom he calls his "old friend." In the beginning of the letter he addresses each one of the bishops as "most holy pope."
2 I.e., The bishops, cf. St Justin Martyr, Tertullian. etc.
3 Literally "abdicate from Prayers." Johnson explains this to mean that they became Prostrators.
4 I.e., St. Gregory.
5 Johnson has a note that this canon is not "St. Gregory's but an addition by some other hand."
The Epistle of St. Athanasius to the Monk Ammus.hyperlink
(Panta Men Kala, K. T. L)
(This, as Epistle XLVIII, will be found translated in Vol. IV. of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (2d Series) p. 556 et seq.)
Involuntary nocturnal pollutions are not sinful, [I add to Johnson the exact words of the Saint. "For what sin or uncleanness can any natural excrement have in itself? Think of the absurdity of making a sin of the wax which comes from the ears or of the spittle from the mouth. Moreover we might add many things and explain how the excretions from the belly are necessary to animal life. But if we believe that man is the work of God's hand, as we are taught in holy Scripture, how can it be supposed necessary that we perform anything impure? And if we are the children of God, as the holy Acts of the Apostles teaches, we have in us nothing unclean, etc., etc."]; nor is matrimony unclean, though virginity ["which is angelic and than which nothing can be more excellent"] is to be preferred before it.
The Epistle of the Same Athanasius Taken from the XXXIX. Festal Epistle.
(Found translated in Vol. IV, of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (2d series), pp. 551 and 552.)
[Johnson's epitome is so unsatisfactory that I hate been compelled to relegate it to a footnote and to make one in its room of my own.hyperlink ]
As the heretics are quoting apocryphal writings, an evil which was rife even as early as when St. Luke wrote his gospel, therefore I have thought good to set forth clearly what books have been received by us through tradition as belonging to the Canon, and which we believe to be divine. For there are in all twenty-two books of the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. After this comes Joshua, and Judges, and Ruth. The four books of the Kings, counted as two. Then Chronicles, counted the two as one. Then First and Second Esdras [i.e. Ezra and Nehemiah]. After these Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Cantica. To these follow Job, and the Twelve Prophets, counted as one book. Then Isaiah, Jeremiah together with the Epistle of Baruch, the Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
Of the New Testament these are the books [then follows the complete list ending with "the Apocalypse of John"]. These are the fountains of salvation, that whoso thirsteth, may be satisfied by the eloquence which is in them. In them alone (en toutoij monoij) is set forth the doctrine of piety. Let no one add to them, nor take aught therefrom.
I also add for further accuracy that there are certain other books, not edited in the Canon, but established by the Fathers, to be read by those who have just come to us and wish to be instructed in the doctrine of piety. The Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, Tobit, the Doctrine (Didakh) of the Apostles and the Pastor. And let none of the Apocrypha of the heretics be read among you.
The Epistle of St Athanasius to Ruffinian.
Su Men Ta Uiw, K. T.L.
(Found translated as Epistle LV. in Vol. IV. of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (2d Series) pp. 566 and 567.)
It has been determined by synods in Greece, Spain, France, that they who have fallen, or been leaders of impiety [Arianism], be pardoned upon repentance, but that they have not the place of the clergy; but that they who were only drawn away by force, or that complied for fear the people should be corrupted, have the place of the clergy too. Let the people who have been deceived, or forced, be pardoned, upon repentance and pronouncing anathema against the miscreancy of Eudoxius and Euzoius, ringleaders of the Arians (who assert that Christ is a creature); and upon professing the faith of the Fathers at Nice, and that no synod can prejudice that.
The First Canonical Epistle of Our Holy Father Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia to Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium.hyperlink
(This Epistle, number ct xxxviij., is found translated in Volume VIII. of the Second Series of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, p. 223 et seqq.)
Canon I.
As to the question concerning the Puritans the custom of every country is to be observed, since they who have discussed this point are of various sentiments. The [baptism] of the Pepuzenes I make no account of, and I wonder that Dionysius the canonist was of another mind. The ancients speak of heresies, which entirely break men off, and make them aliens from the faith. Such are the Manichaeans, Valentinians, Marcionites and Pepuzenes, who sin against the Holy Ghost, who baptize into the Father, Son and Montanus, or Priscilla. Schisms are caused by ecclesiastical disputes, and for causes that are not incurable, and for differences concerning penance. The Puritans are such schismatics. The ancients, viz. Cyprian and Fermilian, put these, and the Encratites, and Hydroparastatae, and Apotactites, under the same condemnation; because they have no longer the communication of the Holy Ghost, who have broken the succession. They who first made the departure had the spiritual gift; but by being schismatics, they became laymen; and therefore they ordered those that were baptized by them, and came over to the Church, to be purged by the true baptism, as those that are baptized by laymen. Because some in Asia have otherwise determined, let [their baptism] be allowed: but not that of the Encratites; for they have altered their baptism, to make themselves incapable of being received by the Church. Yet custom and the Fathers, that is bishops, who have the administration, must be followed; for I am afraid of putting an impediment to the saved; while I would raise fears in them concerning their baptism. We are not to allow their baptism, because they allow ours, but strictly to observe the canons. But let none be received without unction. When we received Zois and Saturninus to the Episcopal chair, we made, as it were, a canon to receive those in communion with them.
Canon II.
Let her that procures abortion undergo ten years' penance, whether the embryo were perfectly formed, or not.
Canon III
A deacon guilty of fornication, is deposed, not excommunicated; for the ancient canon forbids a single crime to be twice punished. And further, a layman excommunicated may be restored to the degree from which he falls, but a clergyman deposed cannot. Yet it is better to cure men of their sins by mortification, and to execute the canon only in cases where we cannot reach what is more perfect.
Canon IV.
They that marry a second time, used to be under penance a year or two. They that marry a third time, three or four years. But we have a custom, that he who marries a third time be under penance five years, not by canon, but tradition. Half of this time they are to be hearers, afterwards Co-standers; but to abstain from the communion of the Good Thing, when they have shewed some fruit of repentance.
Canon V.
Heretics, upon their death-bed, giving good signs of their conversion, to be received.
Canon VI.
Let it not be counted a marriage, when one belonging to the canon commits fornication, but let them be forced to part.hyperlink
Canon VII.
They who have committed sodomy with men or brutes, murderers, wizards, adulterers, and idolaters, have been thought worthy of the same punishment; therefore observe the same method with these which you do with others. We ought not to make any doubt of receiving those who have repented thirty years for the uncleanness which they committed through ignorance; for their ignorance pleads their pardon, and their willingness in confessing it; therefore com- mand them to be forthwith received, especially if they have tears to prevail on your tenderness, and have [since their lapse] led such a life as to deserve your compassion.
Canon VIII.
He that kills another with a sword, or hurls an axe at his own wife and kills her, is guilty of wilful murder; not he who throws a stone at a dog, and undesignedly kills a man, or who corrects one with a rod, or scourge, in order to reform him, or who kills a man in his own defence, when he only designed to hurt him. But the man, or woman, is a murderer that gives a philtrum, if the man that takes it die upon it; so are they who take medicines to procure abortion; and so are they who kill on the highway, and rapparees.
Canon IX.
Our Lord is equal, to the man and womanforbidding divorce, save in case of fornication; but custom requires women to retain their husbands, though they be guilty of fornication. The man deserted by his wife may take another, and though he were deserted for adultery, yet St. Basil will be positive, thatthe other woman who afterward takes him is guilty of adultery; but the wife is not allowed this liberty. And the man who deserts an innocent wife is not allowed to marry.
Canon X.
That they who swear that they will not be ordained, be not forced to break their oath. Severus, Bishop of Masada, who had ordained Cyriacus priest to a country church, subject to the Bishop of Mesthia, is referred to the divine tribunal, upon his pretending that he did it by surprise. Cyriacus had upon his ordination, been forced, contrary to canon, to swear that he would continue in that country church; but the Bishop of Mesthia, to whomthat church properly belonged, forced himout. St. Basil advises Amphilochius to lay the country church to Masada, and make it subject to Severus, and to permit Cyriacus to return to it and save his oath; and by this means he supposes that Longinus, the lord of that country, would be prevailed upon to alter his resolution of laying that church desolate, as he declared he would upon Cyriacus's expulsion.
Canon XI.
He that is guilty of involuntary murder, shall do eleven years' penance-that is, if the murdered person, after he had here received the wound, do again go abroad, and yet afterward die of the wound.
Canon XII.
The canon excludes from the ministry those who are guilty of digamy.
Canon XIII.
Our fathers did not think that killing in war was murder; yet I think it advisable for such as have been guilty of it to forbear communion three years.
Canon XIV.
An usurer, giving his unjust gain to the poor, and renouncing his love of money, may be admitted into the clergy.
Canons XV. And XVI.
Not properly canons, but explications of Scripture, and therefore neither Balsamon, nor Aristenus, regard them as canons.
The Second Canonical Epistle of the Same.
(This is found translated in the same volume last referred to, Epistle cxcix., p. 236 et seqq.)
Canon XVII.
I made a canon, that they at Antioch, who had sworn not to perform the sacred offices should not do it publicly, but in private only: As to Bianor, he is removed from thence to Iconium, and therefore is more at liberty; but let him repent of his rash oath which he made to an infidel for avoiding a small danger.
Canon XVIII.
That the ancients received a professed virgin that had married, as one guilty of digamy, viz., upon one year's penance; but they ought to be dealt with more severely than widows professing continency, and even as adulterers: But they ought not to be admitted to profess virginity till they are above sixteen or seventeen years of age, after trial, and at their own earnest request; whereas relations often offer them that are under age, for their own secular ends, but such ought not easily to be admitted.
Canon XIX.
That men, though they seem tacitly to promise celibacy, by becoming monks, yet do it not expressly; yet I think fit that they be interrogated too, and that a profession should be demanded of them, that if they betake themselves to a carnal life, they may be punished as fornicators.
Canon XX.
Women professing virginity, though they did marry while they were heretics, or catechumens, yet are pardoned by baptism. What is done by persons in the state of catechumens, is never laid to their charge.
Canon XXI.
A married man committing lewdness with a single woman, is severely punished as guilty of fornication, but we have no canon to treat such a man as an adulterer; but the wife must co-habit with such a one: But if the wife be lewd, she is divorced, and he that retains her is [thought] impious; such is the custom, but the reason of it does not appear.
Canon XXII.
That they who have stolen virgins, and will not restore them, be treated as fornicators; that they be one year mourners, the second hearers, the third received to repentance and the fourth be co-standers, and then admitted to communion of the Good Thing. If the virgins be restored to those who had espoused them, it is at their discretion to marry them, or not; if to their guardians, it is at theirdiscretion to give them in marriage to the raptors, or not.
Canon XXIII.
That a man ought not to marry two sisters,nor a woman two brothers: That he whomarries his brother's wife, be not admittedtill he dismiss her.
Canon XXIV.
A widow put into the catalogue of widows, that is, a deaconess being sixty years old, and marrying, is not to be admitted to communion of the Good Thing, till she cease from her uncleanness; but to a widower that marries no penance is appointed, but that of digamy. If the widow be less than sixty, it is the bishop's fault who admitted her deaconess, not the woman's.
Canon XXV.
He that marries a woman that he has corrupted, shall be under penance for corrupting her, but may retain her for his wife.
Canon XXVI.
Fornication is neither marriage, nor the beginning of marriage. If it may be, it is better that they who have committed fornication together be parted; but if they be passionate lovers, let them not separate, for fear of what is worse.
Canon XXVII.
As for the priest that is engaged, through ignorance, in an unlawful marriage, I have decreed, that he retain the honour of the chair; but forbear all sacred operations, and not give the blessing either in private, or public, nor distribute the Body of Christ to another, nor perform any liturgy; but let him bewail himself to the Lord, and to men, that his sin of ignorance may be pardoned.
Canon XXVIII.
That it is ridiculous to vow not to eat swine's flesh, and to abstain from it is not necessary.
Canon XXIX.
That princes ought not to swear to wrong their subjects: that such rash oaths ought to be repented of, and evil not to be justified under pretence of religion.
Canon XXX.
That they who steal women, and their accomplices, be not admitted to prayers, or be co-standers for three years. Where no violence is used, there no crime is committed,except there be lewdness in the case. A widow is at her own discretion. We must not mind vain pretences.
Canon XXXI.
She, whose husband is absent from home, if she co-habits with another man, before she is persuaded of his death, commits adultery.
Canon XXXII.
The clergyman who is deposed for mortal sin, shall not be excommunicated.
Canon XXXIII.
That a woman being delivered of a child in a journey, and taking no care of it, shall be reputed guilty of murder.
Canon XXXIV.
That the crime of women under penance for adultery, upon their own confession, or otherwise convicted, be not published, lest it occasion their death; but that they remain out of communion the appointed time.
Canon XXXV.
If a woman leave her husband, and if it do upon inquiry appear, that she did it without reason, she deserves to be punished; but let him continue in communion.
Canon XXXVI.
A soldier's wife marrying after the long absence of her husband, but before she is certified of his death, is more pardonable than another woman, because it is more credible that he may be dead.
Canon XXXVII.
That he, who having another man's wife or spouse taken away from him, marries another, is guilty of adultery with the first, not with the second.
Canon XXXVIII.
If a woman run after him that has corrupted her, she shall be under penance three years, though the parents be reconciled to her.
Canon XXXIX.
She, who continues to live with an adulterer, is all that time an adulteress.
Canon XL.
She that [being a slave] gives herself up to the will of a man, without the consent of her master, commits fornication; for pacts of those who are under the power of others are null.
Canon XLI.
A widow being at her own discretion, may marry to whom she will.
Canon XLII.
Slaves marrying without the consent of their masters, or children without consent of their fathers, it is not matrimony but fornication, till they ratify it by consenting.
Canon XLIII.
That he who gives a mortal wound to another is a murderer, whether he were the first, aggressor, or did it in his own defence.
Canon XLIV.
The deaconess that has committed lewdness with a pagan is not to be received to communion, but shall be admitted to the oblation, in the seventh year-that is, if she live in chastity. The pagan, who after [he has professed] the faith, betakes himself again to sacrilege, returns [like the dog] to his vomit: we therefore do not permit the sacred body of a deaconess to be carnally used.
Canon XLV.
He that assumes the name of a Christian, but reproaches Christ, shall have no advantage from his name.
Canon XLVI.
She that marries a man who was deserted for a while by his wife, but is afterward dismissed upon the return of the man's former wife, commits fornication, but ignorantly: she shall not be prohibited marriage, but it is better that she do not marry.
Canon XLVII.
Encratites, Saccophorians, and Apotactites, are in the same case with the Novatians. We re-baptize them all. There is a diversity in the canons relating to the Novatians, no canon concerning the other. If it be forbid with you, as it is at Rome for prudential causes, yet let reason prevail. They are a branch of the Marcionists; and though they baptize in the name of the three divine Persons, yet they make God the author of evil, and assert, that wine and the creatures of God, are defiled. The bishops ought to meet, and so to explain the canon, that he who does [baptize such heretics] may be out of danger, and that one may have a positive answer to give to those that ask it.
Canon XLVIII.
A woman dismissed from her husband, ought to remain unmarried, in my judgment.
Canon XLIX.
If a slave be forced by her master, she is innocent.
Canon L.
We look on third marriages as disgraceful to the Church, but do not absolutely condemn them, as being better than a vague fornication.
