Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

constant, and persists in her entreaty to be admitted, may then be ranked among the virgins,
her profession ratified, and its violation rigorously punished. Many girls are brought forward
by their parents and brothers, and other kinsfolk, before they are of full age, and have no
inner impulse towards a celibate life. The object of the friends is simply to provide for
themselves. Such women as these must not be readily received, before we have made public
investigation of their own sentiments.
XIX. I do not recognise the profession of men, except in the case of those who have
enrolled themselves in the order of monks, and seem to have secretly adopted the celibate
life. Yet in their case I think it becoming that there should be a previous examination, and
that a distinct profession should be received from them, so that whenever they may revert
to the life of the pleasures of the flesh, they may be subjected to the punishment of fornicators.
XX. I do not think that any condemnation ought to be passed on women who professed
virginity while in heresy, and then afterwards preferred marriage. “What things soever the
law saith, it saith to them who are under the law.” 2698 Those who have not yet put on
Christ’s yoke do not recognise the laws of the Lord. They are therefore to be received in the
church, as having remission in the case of these sins too, as of all, from their faith in Christ.
As a general rule, all sins formerly committed in the catechumenical state are not taken into
account. 2699 The Church does not receive these persons without baptism; and it is very
necessary that in such cases the birthrights should be observed.
XXI. If a man living with a wife is not satisfied with his marriage and falls into fornication,
I account him a fornicator, and prolong his period of punishment. Nevertheless, we
have no canon subjecting him to the charge of adultery, if the sin be committed against an
unmarried woman. For the adulteress, it is said, “being polluted shall be polluted,” 2700 and
she shall not return to her husband: and “He that keepeth an adulteress is a fool and impious.”
2701 He, however, who has committed fornication is not to be cut off from the society
of his own wife. So the wife will receive the husband on his return from fornication, but
the husband will expel the polluted woman from his house. The argument here is not easy,
but the custom has so obtained. 2702
2698 Rom. iii. 19.
2699 “Male Angli in Pandectis et alit interpretes reddunt, quæ in catechumenica vita fiunt. Non enim dicit
Basilius ea non puniri quæ in hoc statu peccantur, sed tantum peccata ante baptismum commissa baptismo expiari,
nec jam esse judicio ecclesiastico obnoxia. Hinc observat Zonaras non pugnare hunc canonem cum canone quinto
Neocæsariensi, in quo pœnæ catechumenis peccantibus decernuntur.”
2700 Jer. iii. 1.
2701 Prov. xviii. 22, LXX.
To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons.
2702 “Non solus Basilius hanc consuetudinem secutus. Auctor constitutionum apostolicarum sic loquitur lib.
vi. cap. 14: Qui corruptam retinet, naturæ legem violat: quando quidem qui retinet adulteram, stultus est et
impius. Abscinde enim eam, inquit, a carnibus tuis. Nam adjutrix non est, sed insidiatrix, quæ mentem ad alium
680