(Found in Lib. cit., p. 255, et seqq. Epistle ccxvij. )
Canon LI.
That one punishment be inflicted on lapsing clergymen, viz.: deposition, whether they be in dignity, or in, the ministry which is given without imposition of hands.
Canon LII.
A woman delivered in the road, and neglecting her child, is guilty of murder, unless she was under necessity by reason of the solitude of the place, and the want of necessaries.
Canon LIII.
A widow slave desiring to be married a second time, has, perhaps, been guilty of no great crime in pretending that she was ravished; not her pretence, but voluntary choice is to be condemned; but it is clear, that the punishment of digamy is due to her.
Canon LIV.
That it is in the bishop's power to increase or lessen penance for involuntary murder.
Canon LV.
They that are not ecclesiastics setting upon highwaymen, are repelled from the communion of the Good Thing; clergymen are deposed.
Canon LVI.
He that wilfully commits murder, and afterwards repents, shall for twenty years remain without communicating of the Holy Sacrament. Four years he must mourn without the door of the oratory, and beg of the communicants that go in, that prayer be offered for him; then for five years he shall be admitted among the hearers, for seven years among the prostrators; for four years he shall be a co-stander with the communicants, but shall not partake of the oblation; when these years are completed, he shall partake of the Holy Sacrament.
Canon LVII.
The involuntary murderer for two years shall be a mourner, for three years a hearer, four years a prostrator, one year a co-stander, and then communicate.
Canon LVIII.
The adulterer shall be four years a mourner, five a hearer, four a prostrator, two a co-stander.
Canon LIX.
The fornicator shall be a mourner two years, two a hearer, two a prostrator, one a co-stander.
Canon LX.
Professed virgins and monks, if they fall from their profession, shall undergo the penance of adulterers.
Canon LXI.
The thief, if he discover himself, shall do one year's penance; if he be discovered [by others] two; half the time he shall be a prostrator, the other half a co-stander.
Canon LXII.
He that abuses himself with mankind, shall do the penance of an adulterer.
Canon LXIII.
And so shall he who abuses himself with beasts, if they voluntarily confess it.
Canon LXIV.
The perjured person shall be a mourner two years, a hearer three, a prostrator four, a co-stander one.
Canon LXV.
He that confesses conjuration, or pharmacy, shall do penance as long as a murderer.
Canon LXVI.
He that digs the dead out of their graves, shall be a mourner two years, a hearer three years, a prostrator four years, a co-stander one year.
Canon LXVII.
Incest with a sister is punished as murder.
Canon LXVIII.
All incestuous conjunction, as adultery.
Canon LXIX.
A reader or minister lying with a woman he has only espoused, shall cease from his function one year; but if he have not espoused her, he shall [wholly] cease from his ministry.
Canon LXX.
The priest or deacon that is polluted in lips, shall be made to cease from his function, but shall communicate with the priests or deacons. He that does more shall be deposed.
Canon LXXI.
He that is convicted to have been conscious to any of these crimes, but not discovered it, shall be treated as the principal.
Canon LXXII.
He that gives himself to divination, shall be treated as a murderer.
Canon LXXIII.
He that denied Christ, is to be communicated at the hour of death, if he confess it, and be a mourner till that time.
Canon LXXIV.
[The bishop] that has the power of binding and loosing, may lessen the time of penance, to an earnest penitent.
Canon LXXV.
He that commits incest with a half-sister, shall be a mourner three years, a hearer three years, a co-stander two years.
Canon LXXVI.
And so shall he be who takes in marriage his son's wife.
Canon LXXVII.
He that divorces his wife, and marries another, is an adulterer; and according to the canons of the Fathers, he shall be a mourner one year, a hearer two years, a prostrator three years, a co-stander one year, if they repent with tears.
Canon LXXVIII.
So shall he who successively marries two sisters.
Canon LXXIX.
So shall he who madly loves his mother-in-law, or sister.
Canon LXXX.
The Fathers say nothing of polygamy as being beastly, and a thing unagreeable to human nature. To us it appears a greater: sin than fornication: Let therefore such [asare guilty of it] be liable to the canons, viz.: after they have been mourners one year-let them be prostrators three years-and then bereceived,
Canon LXXXI.
They who in the invasion of the barbarians have after long torments, eaten of magical things offered to idols, and have sworn heathen oaths, let them not be received for three years; for two years let them be hearers, for three years prostrators, so let them be received; but they who did it without force, let them be ejected three years, be hearers two years, prostrators three years, co-standers three years, so let them be admitted to communion.
Canon LXXXII.
They who by force have been driven to perjury, let them be admitted after six years; but if without force, let them be mourners two years, hearers two years, the fifth year prostrators, two years co-standers.
Canon LXXXIII.
They that follow heathenish customs, or bring men into their houses for the contriving pharmacies, or repelling them, shall be one year mourners, one year hearers, three years prostrators, one year co-standers.
Canon LXXXIV.
We do not judge altogether by the length of time, but by the circumstances of the penance. If any will not be drawn fromtheir carnal pleasures, and choose to serve them rather than the Lord, we have no communication with them.
Canon LXXXV.
Let us take care that we do not perish with them; let us warn them by night and day, that we may deliver them out of the snare or however save ourselves from their condemnation.
From an Epistle of the Same to the Blessed Amphilochius on the Difference of Meats.
(Found translated in Lib. cit., p. 287, part of Epistle ccxxxvj.)
Canon LXXXVI.
Against the Encratites, who would not eat flesh.
Of the Same to Diodorus Bishop of Tarsus, Concerning a Man Who Had Taken Two Sisters to Wife.
(Found translated in Lib. cit., p. 212 et seqq. Epistle clx.)
Canon LXXXVII.
Contains the preface of his letter to Diodorus Bishop of Tarsus, in which he tells him of a letter shewed him in justification of a man's marrying two sisters bearing his name; but he hopes it was forged.
Canon LXXXVIII.
Contains the rest of the letter, in which he argues and inveighs against this practice.
Of the Same to Gregory a Presbyter, that He Should Separate from a Woman Who Dwelt with Him.
Canon LXXXIX.
A letter to Gregory, an unmarried priest, charging him to dismiss a woman whom he kept, though he was 70 years of age, and declared himself free from all amorous affections; and St. Basil would seem to believe him in this particular; but cites the III. canon of Nice against this practice, bids him avoid scandal, place the woman in a monastery, and be attended by men: he threatens him that if he does not comply, he shall die suspended from his office, and give account to God: that he shall be an anathema to all the people, and they who receive him [to communion] be excommunicated.
Of the Same to the Chorepiscopi, that No Ordinations Should Be Made Contrary to the Canons.
(Found translated in Vol. VIII. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, p. 157. Epistle liv.)
Canon XC.
A letter to his Village-bishop:hyperlink he complains of the want of discipline of the multiplying of the clergy, and that without due examination and enquiry into their morals; that they had dropped the old custom, whichwas for the priests and deacons to recommendto the Village Bishop, who taking the testimonial, and giving notice of it to the [City] Bishop, did afterwards admit the minister into the sacerdotal list; that the number of the inferior clergy was unreasonably increased, especially in time of war, when men got into orders to avoid the press: he orders a list of the clergy in every village to be sent to him, and who admitted him, if any have been admitted into the inferior orders by priests, that they be looked on as laymen. Let not who will, put his name into the list. Re-examine those who are there, expel the unworthy, admit none without my consent for the future; if you do he shall be counted a layman.
Of the Same to His Suffragans that They Should Not Ordain for Money.
(Found translated in Lib. cit., pp. 156 and 157. Epistle liii.)
Canon XCI.
One letter to the bishop subject to him, wherein he prohibits to take money for orders, and to bring merchandize into the church, which is entrusted with the Body, and Blood of Christ; they had their pay after the ordination was performed; this he calls an artifice, and declares, that he who is guilty of it shall depart from the altar in his country, and go buy and sell the gift of God where he can.
From Chapter XVII. Of the Book St. Basil Wrote to Blessed Amphilochius on the Holy Ghost.
(Found translated in Lib. cit., p. 40 et seqq.)
Canon XCII.
He speaks of the written doctrine, and the unwritten tradition of the Apostles, and says, that both have the same efficacy as to religion. The unwritten traditions which he mentions, are the signing those who hope in Christ with the Cross; praying toward the East, to denote, that we are in quest of Eden, that garden in the East from whence our first parents were ejected (as he afterwards explains it), the words of invocation at the consecration of the Bread of Eucharist, and the cup of eulogy; the benediction of the baptismal water, the chrism and of the baptized person; the trine immersion, and the renunciations made at baptism; all which the Fathers concealed from those who were not initiated. He says the dogmata were always kept secret, the Kerugmata published; he adds the tradition of standing at prayer on the first day of the week, and the whole Pentecost (that is, from Easter to Whitsunday), not only to denote our rising with Christ, but as a prefiguration of our expecting an eternal perfect day, for the enjoyment of which we erect ourselves; and lastly, the profession of our faith in Father, Son and Holy Ghost at baptism.
Canon XCIII.
He asserts the Doxology [in these words] "with the Holy Spirit," to be an unwritten, Apostolic tradition. For this is a dogma full of authority, venerable for its antiquity.
From the Letter of Basil the Great to the Nicopolitans.
There is also in Tilius and Bishop Beveridge herehyperlink inserted an epistle of St. Basil the Great to the Nicopolitans, comforting them under the loss of their church or oratory, and telling them, that they ought not to be concerned that they worship God in the open air, for that the eleven Apostles worshipped God in an upper room, where they were cooped up, while they that crucified Jesus performed their worship in a most famous Temple.
The Canonical Epistle of St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, to St. Letoius, Bishop of Melitene.hyperlink
Canon I.
At Easter not only they who are transformed by the grace of the layer, i.e. baptism, but they who are penitents and converts, are to be brought to God, i.e. to the Communion: for Easter is that Catholic feast in which there is a resurrection from the fall of sin.
Canon II.
They who lapse without any force, so as to deny Christ, or do by choice turn Jews, idolaters, or Manichees, or infidels of any sort, not to be admitted to communion till the hour of death; and if they chance to recover beyond expectation, to return to their penance. But they who were forced by torments, to do the penance of fornication.
Canon III.
If they who run to conjurers or diviners, do it through unbelief, they shall be treated as they who wilfully lapse, but if through want of sense, and through a vain hope of being relieved under their necessities, they shall be treated as those who lapse through the violence of torment.
Canon IV.
That fornicators be three years wholly ejected from prayer, three years hearers, three years prostrators, and then admitted to communion; but the time of heating and prostrating may be lessened to them who of their own accord confess, and are earnest penitents. That this time be doubled in case of adultery, and unlawful lusts, but discretion to be used.
Canon V.
Voluntary murderers shall be nine years ejected out of the church, nine years hearers, nine years prostrators; but every one of these nine years may be reduced to seven or six, or even five, if the penitents be very diligent. Involuntary murderers to be treated as fornicators, but still with discretion, and allowing the communion on a death-bed, but on condition, that they return to penance if they survive.
Canon VI.
That the Fathers have been too gentle toward the idolatry of covetous persons, in condemning to penance only robbery, digging of graves, and sacrilege, whereas usury and oppression, though under colour of contract, are forbidden by Scripture. That highwaymen returning to the Church, be treated as murderers. They that pilfer, and then confess their sin to the priest, are only obliged to amendment, and to be liberal to the poor; and if they have nothing, to labour and give their earnings.
Canon VII.
They who dig into graves, and rake into the ashes and bones of the dead, in order to find some valuable flying buffed together with the corpse, (not they who only take some stones belonging to a sepulchre, in order to use them in building) to do the penance of fornicators.
Canon VIII.
He observes that by the law of Moses, sacrilege was punished as murder, and that the guilty person was stoned to death, and thinks the Fathers too gentle, in imposing a shorter penance on sacrilege than adultery.
From the Metre Poems of St. Gregory Theologus, Specifying Which Books of the Old and New Testament Should Be Read.hyperlink
Let not other books seduce your mind: for many malignant writings have been disseminated. The historical books are twelve in number by the Hebrew count, [then follow the names of the books of the Old Testament but Esther is omitted, one Esdras, and all the Deutero-Canonical books]. Thus there are twenty-two books of the Old Testament which correspond to the Hebrew letters. The number of the books of the New Mystery are Matthew, who wrote the Miracles of Christ for the Hebrews; Mark for Italy; Luke, for Greece; John, the enterer of heaven,hyperlink was a preacher to all, then the Acts, the xiv. Epistles of Paul, the vii. Catholic Epistles, and so you have all the books. If there is any beside these, do not repute it genuine.
From the Iambics of St. Amphilochius the Bishop to Seleucus, on the Same Subject.hyperlink
We should know that not every book which is called Scripture is to be received as a safe guide. For some are tolerably sound and others are more than doubtful. Therefore the books which the inspiration of God hath given I will enumerate. [Then follows a list of the proto-canonical books of the Old Testament, Esther alone being omitted. All the, deutero-canonical books are omitted. He then continues] to these some add Esther. I must now show what are the books of the New Testament. [Then follow all the books of the New Testament except the Revelation. He continues,] But some add to these the Revelation of John, but by far the majority say that it is spurious. This is the most true canon of the divinely given Scriptures.
Note.
We have thus four [five if we accept the Laodicean list as genuine,] different canons of Holy Scripture, all having the approval of the Council in Trullo and of the Seventh Ecumenical. From this there seems but one conclusion possible, viz.: that the approval given was not specific but general.
