Canon LXXXVII.
She
who has left her husband is
an adulteress if she has come to another, according to the holy and
divine Basil, who has gathered this most excellently from the prophet
Jeremiah: “If a woman has become another man’s, her
husband shall not return to her, but being defiled she shall remain
defiled;” and again, “He who has an adulteress is senseless
and impious.” If therefore she appears to have departed
from her husband without reason, he is deserving of pardon and she of
punishment. And pardon shall be given to him that he may be in
communion with the Church. But he who leaves the wife lawfully
given him, and shall take another is guilty of adultery by the sentence
of the Lord. And it has been decreed by our Fathers that they who
are such must be “weepers” for a year,
“hearers” for two years, “prostrators” for
three years, and in the seventh year to stand with the faithful and
thus be counted worthy of the Oblation [if with tears they do
penance].
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon
LXXXVII.
She who goes from her husband to another man is an
adulteress. And he who from his wife goes to another woman is an
adulterer according to the word of the Lord.
Compare with this canon lviij. of St. Basil.
The words in brackets are found in Beveridge, but were
lacking in Hervetus’s text.
Johnson.
Here discipline is relaxed; formerly an adulteress did
fifteen years’ penance. See
Can. Bas
., 58. No
wonder if in 200 years’ time from St. Basil, the severity of
discipline was abated.