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12 cf. Can. xviii. Augustine (De Bono Viduitatis, n. 14) represents breaches of the vows of chastity as graver offenses than breaches of the vows of wedlock. The rendering of th= o'ikonomia th=j kaq0 e 9auth$n zwh=j by continency is illustrated in the Ben. note by Hermas ii. 4 as well as by Basil, Cannon xiv and xliv.
13 This Canon is thus interpreted by Aristenus, Matrimnium cum propinqua legibus prohibitum eadem ac adulterium poena castigatur: et cum diversoe sint adulterorum poenoe sic etiam pro ratione propinquitatis tota res temperabitur. Hinc duas sorores ducenti vii. anni poenitentioe irrogantur, ut in adulterio cum muliere libera commisso. non xv. ut in graviore adulterio, or does it mean that incestuos fornication shall be treated as adultery?
14 By minister Balsamon and Zonaras understand the subdeacon. Aristenus understands all the clergy appointed without imposition of hands. The Ben. ed. approve the latter. cf. n. on Canon li. p. 236, and Letter liv. p. 157.
15 On the earlier part of the canon the Ben. note says: "Balsamon, Zonaras, et Aristenus varia commentantur in hunc canonem, sed a mente Basilii multum abludentia. Liquet enim hoc labiorum peccatum, cui remissor poena infligitur ipsa actione, quam Basilius minime ignoscendam esse judicat, levius existimari debere. Simili ratione sanctus Pater in cat, levius existimari debere. Simili ratione sanctus Pater in cap. vi. Isaiae n. 185, p. 516, labiorum peccata actionibus, ut leviora, opponit, ac prophetae delecta non ad actionem et operationem erupisse, sed labiis tenus constitisse observat. In eodem commentario n. 170, p. 501, impuritasis peccatum variis gradibus constaree demonstrat inter quos enumerat r'h/mata fqoropoia\, verba ad corruptelam apta, o 9mili/aj maxra/j, longas confabulationes, quibus ad stuprum pervenitur. Ex his perspici arbitror peccatum aliquod in hoccanone designari, quod ipsa actione levius sit: nedum ea suspicari liceat, quae Basilii interpretibus in mentem venerunt. Sed tamen cum dico Basilium in puniendis labiorum peccatis leniorem esse, non quodlibet turpium sermonum genus, non immunda colloquia (quomodo enim presbyteris hoc vitio pollutis honorem cathedrae rliquisset?), sed ejusmodi intelligenda est peccandi voluntas, quae foras quidem aliquo sermone prodit, sed tamen quominus in actum erumpat, subeunte meliori cogitatione, reprimitur. Quemadmodum enim peccala, quae sola cogitatione committuntur, idcirca leviora esse pronuntiat Basilius, comment, in Isaiam n. 115. p. 459. et n. 243, p. 564, qui repressa est actionis turpitudo; ita hoc loco non quaelibet labiorum peccata; non calumnias, non blasphemias, sed ea tantum lenius tractat, quae adeo gravia non erant, vel etiam ob declinatam actionis turpitudinem, ut patet ex his berbis, seque eo usque pecasse confessus est, aliquid indulgentiae merere videbantur."
On the word kaqairoqh/setai it is remarked: "In his canonibus quos de clericorum peccatis edidit Basilius, duo videntur silentio praetermissa. Quaeri enim possit 10 cur suspensionispoenam soli lectori ac ministro, sive subdiacono, imponat, diaconis autem et presbyteris depositionem absque ulla prorsus exceptione infligat, nisi quod eis communionem cum diaconis et presbyteris relinquit, si peccatum non ita grave fuerit. Erat tamen suspensionis poena in ipsos presbyteros non inusitata, ut patet ex plurimis apostolicis canonibus, in quibus presbyteri ac etiam ipsi episcopi segregantur, ac postea, si sese non emendaverint, deponuntur. Forte hae c reliquit Basilius episcopo dijudicanda quemadmodum ejusdem arbitrio permittet in canonibus 74 et 84, ut poenitentiae tempus imminuat, si bonus evasint is qui peccavi. 20 Haec etiam possit institui quaestio, utrumne in gravissimis quidem criminibus poenitentiam publicam depositioni adjercerit. Adhibita ratio in Canone 3, cur aliquid discriminis clericos inter et laicos ponendum sit, non solum ad gravia peccata, sed etiam ad gravissima pertinet. Ait enim aequum esse ut, cum laici post poenitentiam in eumdem locum restituantur, clerici vero non restituantur, liberalius et mitius cum clericis agatur. Nolebat ergo clericos lapsos quadruplicem poenitentiae gradum percurrere. Sed quemad modum lapso in fornicationem diacono non statim communionem reddit, sed ejus conversionem et morum emendationem probandam esse censit, ut ad eumdem canonem tertium observavimus, ita dubium esse non potest quin ad criminis magnitudinemprobandi modum et tempus accommodaverit.
16 The Ben. ed. suppose for the purpose of learning sorcery. cf. Can. lxxxiii., where a lighter punishment is assigned to consulters of wizards.
17 e'comologou/menoj. "The verb in St. Matt. xi. 25 expresses thanksgiving and praise, and in this sense was used by many Christian writers (Suicer, s.v.). But more generally in the early Fathers it signifies the whole course of penitential discipline, the outward act and performance of penance. From this it came to mean that public acknowledgment of sin which formed so important a part of penitence. Iranaeus (c. Haer. i. 13, § 5) speaks of an adulterer who, having been converted, passed her whole life in a state of penitence (e'comologoume/nh, in exomologesi); and confessing his errors (e'comologou/menoj)." D. C. A. I. 644.
18 Here we see "binding and loosing" passing from the Scriptural sense of declaring what acts are forbidden and committed (Matt. xvi. 19 and xxiii. 4. See note of Rev. A. Carr in Cambridge Bible for Schools) into the later ecclesiastical sense of imposing and remitting penalties for sin. The first regards rather moral obligation, and, as is implied in the force of the tenses alike in the passages of St. Matthew cited and in St. John xx. 23, the recognition and announcement of the divine judgment already passed on sins and sinners; the later regards the imposition of disciplinary penalties.
20 e.g. according to the Ben. note, Manasseh and Hezekiah.
21 The Ben. note points out the St. Basil refers to the repudiation of a lawful wife from some other cause than adultery. It remarks that though Basil does not order it to be punished as severely as adultery there is no doubt that he would not allow communion before the dismissal of the unlawful wife. It proceeds "illud autem difficilius est stature, quid de matrimonio post ejectam uxorem adulteram contracto senserit. Ratum a Basilio habitum fuisse ejusmodi matrimonium pronuntiat Aristentus. At que id quidem Basilius, conceptis verbis non declarat; sed tamen videtur hac in re a saniori ac meliori sententia discessisse. Nam 10 macitum injuste dimissum ab alio matrimonio non excludit, ut vidimus in canonibus 9 et 35. Porro non videtur jure dimittenti denegasse, quod injuste dimisso concedebat. 20 Cum jubeat uxorem adulteram ejici, vix dubium est quin matrimonium adulterio uxoris fuisset mariti, ac multo durior, quam uxoris conditio, si nec adulteram retinere, necaliam ducere integrum fuisset.
23 The Ben. note is Prima specie non omnio perspicuum est utrum sorores ex utroque parente intelligat, an tantum ex alterutro. Nam cum in canone 79 eos qui suas nurus accipiunt non severius puniat, quam cui cum sorore ex matre vel ex patre rem habent, forte videri posset idem statuere deiis qui in novercas insaniunt. Sed tamen multo probbailus est eamdem illis poenam imponi, ac iis qui cum sorore ex utroque parente contaminantur. Non enim distinctione utitur Basilius ut in canone 75; nec mirum si peccatum cum noverca gravius quam cum nuru, ob factam patri injuriam, judicavit.
24 i.e. probably only into the place of standers. Zonaras and Balsamon understand by polygamy a fourth marriage; trigamy being permitted (cf. Canon l. p. 240) though discouraged. The Ben. annotator dissents, pointing out that in Canon iv. Basil calls trigamy, polygamy, and quoting Gregory of Nazianzus (Orat. 31) as calling a third marriage paranomi/a. Maran confirms this opinion by the comparison of the imposition on polygamy of the same number of years of penance as are assigned to trigamy in Canon iv. "Theodore of Canterbury a.d. 687 imposes a penance of seven years on trigamists but pronounces the marriages valid (Penitential, lib. 1. c. xiv. § 3). Nicephorus of Constantinople, a.d. 814, suspends trigamists for five years. (Hard. Concil. tom. iv. p. 1052.) Herard of Tours, a.d. 858 declares any greater number of wives than two to be unlawful (Cap cxi. ibid. tom. iv. p. 1052) Leo the Wise, Emperor of Constantinople, was allowed to marry three wives without public remonstrance, but was suspended from communion by the patriarch Nicholas when he married a fourth. This led to a council being held at Constantinople, a.d. 920, which finally settled the Greek discipline on the subject of third and fourth marriages. It ruled that the penalty for a fourth marriage was to be excommunication and exclusion from the church; for a third marriage, if a man were forty years old, suspension for five years, and admission to communion thereafter only on Easter day. If he were thirty years old, suspension for four years, and admission to communion thereafter only three times a year.." Dict. Christ. Ant.. ii. p. 1104.
25 The Ben. n. thinks that the Fathers of Ancyra are meant, whose authority seems to have been great in Cappadocia and the adjacent provinces.
26 metanoi/aj. cf. note on p. 256; here the word seems to include both repentance and penance.
2 i.e. the inhabitants of the Roman province of Asia. cf. Acts xx. 4. Asianoi\ de\ Tuxiko\j kai\ Tro/fimo:.
3 Corydalla, now Hadginella, is on the road between Lystra and Patara. There are ruins of a theatre. cf. Plin. v. 25.
5 So the Ben. ed. Other readings are e'n Ku/roij and e'n Nu/roij. On Myra cf. Acts xxvii. 5, on which Conybeare and Howson refer to Fellows' Asia Minor, p. 194 and Spratt and Forbes's Lycia.
6 Afterwards bishop of Myra, and as such at Constantinople 381, Labbe I, 665.
9 Now Marci, where the ruins are remarkable.
6 cf. Homer of #Erij, Il. iv. 442:
h# t0 o'li/gh me\n prw=ta koru/ssetai, au'ta\r e!peita
ou'ranw= e'sth/rice ka/rh kai\ e'pi\ xqoni\ bai/nei.
2 The Syrian Beraea, Aleppo, or Haleb. cf. Letter clxxxv. p. 222.
2 The Syrian Chaecis, now Kinesrin. Maran Vit. Bas. Chap xxxiii. supposes this letter to have been probably carried with Letter ccxxi. by Acacius.
3 Maran Vit. Bas. l. c. says that these words cannot refer to the persecution of Valens in Cappadocia in 371, for that persecution went on between Constantinople and Cappadocia, and did not start from the East. There need be no surprise, he thinks, at the two preceding letters containing no mention of this persecution, because Acacius, who was a native of Bera, would be sure to report all that he had observed in Cappadocia. I am not sure that the reference to a kind of prairie fire spreading from the East does not rather imply a prevalence of heresy than what is commonly meant by persecution. Meletius, however, was banished from Antioch in 374 and Eusebius from Samosata in the same year, as graphically described by Theodoret H. E. iv. 13.
4 kau/swna. cf. Matt. xx. 12. Luke xii. 55, and James i. 11.