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

To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons.intelligence. Such women, when they cause death, though the result of their action may notbe what they intended, are nevertheless, on account of their proceedings being magical andprohibited, to be reckoned among intentional homicides. Women also who administerdrugs to cause abortion, as well as those who take poisons to destroy unborn children, aremurderesses. So much on this subject.IX. The sentence of the Lord that it is unlawful to withdraw from wedlock, save on accountof fornication, 2636 applies, according to the argument, to men and women alike.Custom, however, does not so obtain. Yet, in relation with women, very strict expressionsare to be found; as, for instance, the words of the apostle “He which is joined to a harlot isone body” 2637 and of Jeremiah, If a wife “become another man’s shall he return unto heragain? shall not that land be greatly polluted?” 2638 And again, “He that hath an adulteressis a fool and impious.” 2639 Yet custom ordains that men who commit adultery and are infornication be retained by their wives. Consequently I do not know if the woman who liveswith the man who has been dismissed can properly be called an adulteress; the charge inthis case attaches to the woman who has put away her husband, and depends upon the causefor which she withdrew from wedlock. 2640 In the case of her being beaten, and refusing tosubmit, it would be better for her to endure than to be separated from her husband; in thecase of her objecting to pecuniary loss, even here she would not have sufficient ground. Ifher reason is his living in fornication we do not find this in the custom of the church; butfrom an unbelieving husband a wife is commanded not to depart, but to remain, on accountof the uncertainty of the issue. “For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt savethy husband?” 2641 Here then the wife, if she leaves her husband and goes to another, is anadulteress. But the man who has been abandoned is pardonable, and the woman who liveswith such a man is not condemned. But if the man who has deserted his wife goes to another,2272636 Matt. v. 32.2637 1 Cor. vi. 16.2638 Jer. iii. 1.2639 Prov. xviii. 22, LXX.2640 The Ben. note is, Sequitur in hoc canone Basilius Romanas leges, quas tamen fatetur cum evangelio minusconsentire. Lex Constantini jubet in repudio mittendo a femina hæc sola crimina inquiri, si homicidam, velmedicamentarium, vel sepulcrorum dissolutorem maritum suum esse probaverit. At eadem lege viris conceditur,ut adulteras uxores dimittant. Aliud discrimen hoc in canone uxores inter et maritos ponitur, quod uxor injustedimissa, si ab alia ducatur, adulterii notam non effugiat; dimissus autem injuste maritus nec adulter sit, si aliamducat, nec quæ ab eo ducitur, adultera. Cæterum Basilius ante episcopatum eodem jure uxorem ac maritum essecensebat. Nam in Moral. reg. 73statuit virum ab uxore, aut uxorem a viro non debere separari, nisi quis deprehendaturin adulterio. Utrique pariter interdicit novis nuptiis, sive repudient, sive repudientur.2641 1 Cor. vii. 16.656