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

LXXX. On polygamy the Fathers are silent, as being brutish and altogether inhuman.
The sin seems to me worse than fornication. It is therefore reasonable that such sinners
should be subject to the canons; namely a year’s weeping, three years kneeling and then reception.
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LXXXI. During the invasion of the barbarians many men have sworn heathen oaths,
tasted things unlawfully offered them in magic temples and so have broken their faith in
God. Let regulations be made in the case of these men in accordance with the canons laid
down by our Fathers. 2850 Those who have endured grievous tortures and have been forced
to denial, through inability to sustain the anguish, may be excluded for three years, hearers
for two, kneelers for three, and so be received into communion. Those who have abandoned
their faith in God, laying hands on the tables of the demons and swearing heathen oaths,
without under going great violence, should be excluded for three years, hearers for two.
When they have prayed for three years as kneelers, and have stood other three with the
faithful in supplication, then let them be received into the communion of the good thing.
LXXXII. As to perjurers, if they have broken their oaths under violent compulsion,
they are under lighter penalties and may therefore be received after six years. If they break
their faith without compulsion, let them be weepers for two years, hearers for three, pray
as kneelers for five, during two be received into the communion of prayer, without oblation,
and so at last, after giving proof of due repentance, they shall be restored to the communion
of the body of Christ.
2849 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 παρανομία . 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 Canter-
bury 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.v. p. 557). 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.
2850 The Ben. n. thinks that the Fathers of Ancyra are meant, whose authority seems to have been great in
Cappadocia and the adjacent provinces.
To Amphilochius, the Canons.
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