The Canons of the
Holy and Blessed Fathers Who Assembled at Neocæsarea, Which are
Indeed Later in Date Than Those Made at Ancyra, But More Ancient Than
the Nicene: However, the Synod of Nice Has Been Placed Before
Them on Account of Its Peculiar Dignity.
122
(Annotations by Routh, and reprint of the Notes of
Christopher Justellus and of Bp. Beveridge will be found in Vol. iv. of
the
Reliquiæ Sacræ
.)
Canon I.
If
a presbyter marry, let him be
removed from his order; but if he commit fornication or adultery, let
him be altogether cast out [i.e. of communion] and put to penance.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon I.
If a presbyter marries he shall be deposed from his
order. If he commits adultery or whoredom he shall be expelled,
and shall be put to penance.
Aristenus.
A presbyter who marries is removed from the exercise of
the priesthood but retains his honour and seat. But he that
commits fornication or adultery is cast forth altogether and put to
penance.
Van Espen.
These fathers [i.e. of Neocæsarea] shew how much
graver seemed to them the sin of the presbyter who after ordination
committed fornication or adultery, than his who took a wife. For
the former they declare shall simply be deposed from his order or
deprived of the dignity of the Priesthood, but the latter is to
“be altogether cast out, and put to
penance.”…Therefore such a presbyter not only did they
remove from the priestly functions, or the dignity of the priesthood,
but perfectly or altogether cast him out of the Church.
This canon Gratian has inserted in the
Corpus Juris
Canonici
.
Decretum
. Pars I., Dist. xxviii., c.
ix. Gratian has followed Isidore in adding after the word
“penance” the words “among the laity” (
inter
laicos
) which do not occur in the Greek, (as is noted by the Roman
Correctors) nor in the version of Dionysius Exiguus; these same
correctors fall however themselves into a still graver error in
supposing that criminous clerks in the early days of the Church were
sent out to wander over the country, as Van Espen well points out.
On the whole subject of the marriage of the clergy in
the Early Church see the Excursus devoted to that subject.
122
This is the title in
the Paris edition of Zonaras.