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

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

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

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Without Address. Concerning Raptus.Without Address. Concerning Raptus. 3222Letter CCLXX. 3221I am distressed to find that you are by no means indignant at the sins forbidden, <strong>and</strong>that you seem incapable of underst<strong>and</strong>ing, how this raptus, which has been committed, isan act of unlawfulness <strong>and</strong> tyranny against society <strong>and</strong> human nature, <strong>and</strong> an outrage onfree men. I am sure that if you had all been of one mind in this matter, there would havebeen nothing to prevent this bad custom from being long ago driven out of your country.Do thou at the present time shew the zeal of a Christian man, <strong>and</strong> be moved as the wrongdeserves. Wherever you find the girl, insist on taking her away, <strong>and</strong> restore her to her parents,shut out the man from the prayers, <strong>and</strong> make him excommunicate. His accomplices, accordingto the canon 3223 which I have already put forth, cut off, with all their household,from the prayers. The village which received the girl after the abduction, <strong>and</strong> kept her, oreven fought against her restitution, shut out with all its inhabitants from the prayers; to theend that all may know that we regard the ravisher as a common foe, like a snake or anyother wild beast, <strong>and</strong> so hunt him out, <strong>and</strong> help those whom he has wronged.3221 Placed after 374.3222 On this subject see before <strong>Letters</strong> cxcix. <strong>and</strong> ccxvii. pp. 238 <strong>and</strong> 256. See Preb. Meyrick in D.C.A. ii.1102: “It means not exactly the same as our word ravishment, but the violent removal of a woman to a placewhere her actions are no longer free, for the sake of inducing her or compelling her to marry.…By some raptusis distinguished into the two classes of raptus seductionis <strong>and</strong> raptus violentiæ.” cf. Cod. Theod. ix. tit. xxiv. legg.1, 2, <strong>and</strong> Cod. Justin. ix.–xiii. leg. 1 Corp. Juris. ii. 832.3223 κήρυγυα. The Ben. note is no doubt right in underst<strong>and</strong>ing the word not to refer to any decree on thisparticular case, but to <strong>Basil</strong>’s general rule in Canon xxx. cf. p. 239. On the use of κήρυγμα by <strong>Basil</strong>, see note onp. 41.838

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