Canon XXVI.
They
who have not been promoted
[to that office] by the bishop, ought not to adjure, either in churches
or in private houses.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon
XXVI.
No one shall adjure without the bishop’s promotion
to that office.
Balsamon.
Some were in the habit of “adjuring,” that
is catechising the unbelievers, who had never received the imposition
of the bishop’s hands for that purpose; and when they were
accused of doing so, contended that as they did not do it in church but
only at home, they could not be considered as deserving of any
punishment. For this reason the Fathers rule that even to
“adjure” (
ἐφορκίζειν
)
is an ecclesiastical ministry, and must not be executed by anyone who
shall not have been promoted thereto by a bishop. But the
“Exorcist” must be excepted who has been promoted by a
Chorepiscopus, for he can indeed properly catechize although not
promoted by a bishop; for from Canon X. of Antioch we learn that even a
Chorepiscopus can make an Exorcist.
Zonaras notes that from this canon it appears that
“Chorepiscopi are considered to be in the number of
bishops.”
Van Espen.
“Promoted” (
προαχθέντας
) by the bishops, by which is signified a mere designation or
appointment, in conformity with the Greek discipline which never
counted exorcism among the orders, but among the simple ministries
which were committed to certain persons by the bishops, as Morinus
proves at length in his work on Orders (
De Ordinationibus
, Pars
III., Ex. XIV., cap. ij.).
Double is the power of devils over men, the one part
internal the other external. The former is when they hold the
soul captive by vice and sin. The latter when they disturb the
exterior and interior senses and lead anyone on to fury. Those
who are subject to the interior evils are the Catechumens and
Penitents, and those who are subject to the exterior are the
Energumens. Whoever are
occupied with the freeing from the power of the
devil of either of these kinds, by prayers, exhortations, and
exorcisms, are said “to exorcize” them; which seems to be
what Balsamon means when he says—“‘exorcize’
that is ‘to catechize the unbelievers.’”
Vide
this matter more at length in Ducange’s
Glossary
(
Gloss
., s.v. Exorcizare).
This canon is found in the
Corpus Juris Canonici
,
Gratian’s
Decretum
, Pars I., Dist. LXIX. c. ij.,
Isidore’s version.