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

LVI. The intentional homicide, who has afterwards repented, will be excommunicated
from the sacrament 2834 for twenty years. The twenty years will be appointed for him as
follows: for four he ought to weep, standing outside the door of the house of prayer, beseeching
the faithful as they enter in to offer prayer in his behalf, and confessing his own sin.
After four years he will be admitted among the hearers, and during five years will go out
with them. During seven years he will go out with the kneelers, 2835 praying. During four
years he will only stand with the faithful, and will not take part in the oblation. On the
completion of this period he will be admitted to participation of the sacrament.
LVII. The unintentional homicide will be excluded for ten years from the sacrament.
The ten years will be arranged as follows: For two years he will weep, for three years he will
continue among the hearers; for four he will be a kneeler; and for one he will only stand.
Then he will be admitted to the holy rites.
LVIII. The adulterer will be excluded from the sacrament for fifteen years. During four
he will be a weeper, and during five a hearer, during four a kneeler, and for two a slander
without communion.
LIX. The fornicator will not be admitted to participation in the sacrament for seven
years; 2836 weeping two, hearing two, kneeling two, and standing one: in the eighth he will
be received into communion.
2834 ἁγιάσμασι. The Ben. Ed. render Sacramento. In the Sept. (e.g. Amos vii. 13) the word=sanctuary. In
patristic usage both S. and P. are found for the Lord’s Supper, or the consecrated elements; e.g. ἁγίασμα in Greg.
Nyss., Ep. Canon. Can. v. The plural as in this place “frequentius.” (Suicer s.v.)
2835 μετὰ τῶν ἐν ὑποπτώσει. The ὑποπίπτοντες or substrati constituted the third and chief station in the
oriental system of penance, the first and second being the προσκλαίοντες, flentes or weepers, and the ἀκροώμενος,
audientes, or hearers. In the Western Church it is the substrati who are commonly referred to as being in pen-
itence, and the Latin versions of the Canons of Ancyra by Dionysius Exiguus and Martin of Braga render
ὑποπίπτοντες and ὑποπτῶσις by pœnitentis and pœnitentia. In Basil’s Canon xxii. p. 238, this station is specially
styled μετάνοια. cf. D.C.A. ii. 1593. “Μετάνοια notat pœnitentiam eorum qui ob delicta sua in ecclesia ἐπιτιμίοις
ἐσωφρονίζοντο (Zonaras, Ad. Can. v. Conc. Antioch, p. 327), quique dicebantur οἰ ἐν μετανοιᾳ ὄντες.
Chrysostom, Hom. iii. in Epist. ad Eph. in S. Cœnæ communione clamabat κήρυξ, ὅσοι ἐν μετανοί& 139· ἀπέλθετε
πάντες.” Suicer s.v.
To Amphilochius, the Canons.
2836 cf. Can. xxii. p. 228. The Ben. note is “Laborant Balsamon et Zonaras in hoc canone conciliando cum
vicesimo secundo, atque id causæ afferunt, cur in vicesimo secundo quatuor anni, septem in altero decernantur,
quod Basilius in vicesimo secundo antiqua Patrum placita sequatur, suam in altero propriam sententiam exponat.
Eundem hunc canonem Alexius Aristenus, ut clarum et perspicuum, negat explicatione indigere. Videbat nimirum
doctissimus scriptor duplicem a Basilio distingui fornicationem, leviorem alteram, alteram graviorem levior dicitur,
quæ inter personas matrimonio solutas committitur: gravior, cum conjugati hominis libido in mulierem solutam
erumpit. Priori anni quatuor, septem alteri imponuntur. Manifesta res est ex canone 21, ubi conjugati peccatum
cum soluta fornicationem appellat Basilius, ac longioribus pœnis coerceri, non tamen instar adulterii, testatur.
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