NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons.additional crime, a second murder, at all events if we regard it as done with intent. Thepunishment, however, of these women should not be for life, but for the term of ten years.And let their treatment depend not on mere lapse of time, but on the character of their repentance.III. A deacon who commits fornication after his appointment to the diaconate is to bedeposed. But, after he has been rejected and ranked among the laity, he is not to be excludedfrom communion. For there is an ancient canon that those who have fallen from their degreeare to be subjected to this kind of punishment alone. 2627Herein, as I suppose, the ancient authorities followed the old rule “Thou shalt not avengetwice for the same thing.” 2628 There is this further reason too, that laymen, when expelledfrom the place of the faithful, are from time to time restored to the rank whence they havefallen; but the deacon undergoes once for all the lasting penalty of deposition. His deacon’sorders not being restored to him, they rested at this one punishment. So far is this as regardswhat depends on law laid down. But generally a truer remedy is the departure from sin.Wherefore that man will give me full proof of his cure who, after rejecting grace for the sakeof the indulgence of the flesh, has then, through bruising of the flesh 2629 and the enslavingof it 2630 by means of self control, abandoned the pleasures whereby he was subdued. Weought therefore to know both what is of exact prescription and what is of custom; and, incases which do not admit of the highest treatment, to follow the traditional direction.IV. In the case of trigamy and polygamy they laid down the same rule, in proportion,as in the case of digamy; namely one year for digamy (some authorities say two years); fortrigamy men are separated for three and often for four years; but this is no longer describedas marriage at all, but as polygamy; nay rather as limited fornication. It is for this reasonthat the Lord said to the woman of Samaria, who had five husbands, “he whom thou nowhast is not thy husband.” 2631 He does not reckon those who had exceeded the limits of asecond marriage as worthy of the title of husband or wife. In cases of trigamy we have accepteda seclusion of five years, not by the canons, but following the precept of our predecessors.Such offenders ought not to be altogether prohibited from the privileges of the2627 “Respicit, ni falor, ad canonem 25 apostolorum, ad quem Balsamon et Zonaras observant nonnulla essepeccata, quibus excommunicatio, non solum depositio, infligitur; velut si quis pecunia, vel magistratus potentia,sacerdotium assequatur, ut sancitur Can. 29 et 30.” Ben. note.2628 Nahum i. 9, LXX.2629 “Duo veteres libri συντριμμοῦ τῆς καρδίας.” Ben. note.2630 cf. 1 Cor. ix. 27.2631 John iv. 18. For the more usual modern interpretation that the sixth union was an unlawful one, cf.Bengel. Matrimonium hoc sextum non erat legitimum, vel non consummatum, aut desertio aliudve impedimentumintercesserat, ex altera utra parte.653