Canon IX.
Our Lord is equal, to the man and woman forbidding divorce, save in case of fornication; but custom requires women to retain their husbands, though they be guilty of fornication. The man deserted by his wife may take another, and though he were deserted for adultery, yet St. Basil will be positive, that the other woman who afterward takes him is guilty of adultery; but the wife is not allowed this liberty. And the man who deserts an innocent wife is not allowed to marry.
Canon X.
That they who swear that they will not be ordained, be not forced to break their oath. Severus, Bishop of Masada, who had ordained Cyriacus priest to a country church, subject to the Bishop of Mesthia, is referred to the divine tribunal, upon his pretending that he did it by surprise. Cyriacus had upon his ordination, been forced, contrary to canon, to swear that he would continue in that country church; but the Bishop of Mesthia, to whom that church properly belonged, forced him out. St. Basil advises Amphilochius to lay the country church to Masada, and make it subject to Severus, and to permit Cyriacus to return to it and save his oath; and by this means he supposes that Longinus, the lord of that country, would be prevailed upon to alter his resolution of laying that church desolate, as he declared he would upon Cyriacus's expulsion.
Canon XI.
He that is guilty of involuntary murder, shall do eleven years' penance--that is, if the murdered person, after he had here received the wound, do again go abroad, and yet afterward die of the wound.
Canon XII.
The canon excludes from the ministry those who are guilty of digamy.
Canon XIII.
Our fathers did not think that killing in war was murder; yet I think it advisable for such as have been guilty of it to forbear communion three years.
Canon XIV.
An usurer, giving his unjust gain to the poor, and renouncing his love of money, may be admitted into the clergy.
Canons XV. and XVI.
Not properly canons, but explications of Scripture, and therefore neither Balsamon, nor Aristenus, regard them as canons.
[596] These canons of St. Basil's are annotated by Zonaras, Balsamon and Aristenus, and of them there is also the Ancient Epitome which will be found in Beveridge (Synod., Tom. II., p. 47). Johnson gives the date of these canons as later than the year 370.
[597] Johnson adds this note, "i.e. a clergyman, Monk, Deaconess, etc." See Can. Nic., xvj.
The Second Canonical Epistle of the Same.
(This is found translated in the same volume last referred to, Epistle cxcix., p. 236 et seqq.)
Canon XVII.
I made a canon, that they at Antioch, who had sworn not to perform the sacred offices should not do it publicly, but in private only: As to Bianor, he is removed from thence to Iconium, and therefore is more at liberty; but let him repent of his rash oath which he made to an infidel for avoiding a small danger.
Canon XVIII.
That the ancients received a professed virgin that had married, as one guilty of digamy, viz., upon one year's penance; but they ought to be dealt with more severely than widows professing continency, and even as adulterers: But they ought not to be admitted to profess virginity till they are above sixteen or seventeen years of age, after trial, and at their own earnest request; whereas relations often offer them that are under age, for their own secular ends, but such ought not easily to be admitted.
Canon XIX.
That men, though they seem tacitly to promise celibacy, by becoming monks, yet do it not expressly; yet I think fit that they be interrogated too, and that a profession should be demanded of them, that if they betake themselves to a carnal life, they may be punished as fornicators.
Canon XX.
Women professing virginity, though they did marry while they were heretics, or catechumens, yet are pardoned by baptism. What is done by persons in the state of catechumens, is never laid to their charge.
Canon XXI.
A married man committing lewdness with a single woman, is severely punished as guilty of fornication, but we have no canon to treat such a man as an adulterer; but the wife must co-habit with such a one: But if the wife be lewd, she is divorced, and he that retains her is [thought] impious; such is the custom, but the reason of it does not appear.