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

To Amphilochius, the Canons.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 sinnersshould be subject to the canons; namely a year’s weeping, three years kneeling and then reception.2849LXXXI. 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 inGod. Let regulations be made in the case of these men in accordance with the canons laiddown by our Fathers. 2850 Those who have endured grievous tortures and have been forcedto denial, through inability to sustain the anguish, may be excluded for three years, hearersfor two, kneelers for three, and so be received into communion. Those who have abandonedtheir 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 thefaithful 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 breaktheir faith without compulsion, let them be weepers for two years, hearers for three, prayas 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 communionof the body of Christ.2592849 i.e.probably only into the place of standers. Zonaras and Balsamon understand by polygamy a fourthmarriage; 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) ascalling a third marriage παρανομία . Maran confirms this opinion by the comparison of the imposition onpolygamy of the same number of years of penance as are assigned to trigamy in Canon iv. “Theodore of Canterburya.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 (Capcxi. ibid. tom.v. p. 557). Leo the Wise, Emperor of Constantinople, was allowed to marry three wives withoutpublic 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 thesubject of third and fourth marriages. It ruled that the penalty for a fourth marriage was to be excommunicationand exclusion from the church; for a third marriage, if a man were forty years old, suspension for five years, andadmission 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 inCappadocia and the adjacent provinces.728