Question — Decretum of Gratian
Question I
GRATIAN. Concerning the first question, the following is read to have been established in the Seventh Council of Carthage, at which Faustinus, legate of the Roman Church, was present:
GRATIANUS. De prima questione sic statutum legitur in Concilio Cartaginensi VII., cui interfuit Faustinus Romanae ecclesiae legatus:
Friedberg, col. 535/536
C. I. One who persists under excommunication is not admitted to accuse.
We determine that one is rightly not admitted to an accusation who, after he has been excommunicated and while he is still placed under that excommunication, has wished to accuse, whether he is a cleric or a layman. § 1. All who are also stained by marks of infamy—that is, stage performers or persons subject to acts of turpitude—and heretics also, whether pagans or Jews, are prohibited from an accusation.
C. I. Ad accusandum non admittitur qui in excommunicatione perseuerat.
Diffinimus, eum rite ad accusationem non admitti, qui posteaquam excommunicatus fuerit, in ipsa adhuc excommunicatione constitutus, siue sit clericus siue laicus, accusare uoluerit. §. 1. Omnes etiam infamiae maculis aspersi, id est histriones aut turpitudinibus subiectae personae, heretici etiam, siue pagani siue Iudei, ab accusatione prohibentur.
Friedberg, col. 535/536
C. II. Those who are separated from the Church by schism or excommunication are proved to be heretics.
Likewise Pope Nicholas, [in the letter to Emperor Michael which begins, “We had proposed”]. But that those who had already been deposed, excommunicated, or anathematized by our aforesaid brother and fellow minister Ignatius could render no condemnation against him is declared from the chapter produced from the Second Universal Synod, when it is said: “But if the crime which has been alleged against a bishop is ecclesiastical, then it is necessary that the persons of the accusers be tested, so that, first, heretics may not be permitted to make accusations against orthodox bishops concerning ecclesiastical business.” But lest we deny that these persons are heretics, hear what follows: “By heretics,” they say, “we mean both those who were formerly cast out by the Church and those who have afterward been anathematized by us.” Moreover, if even thus you still do not believe, hear what is added: “But besides these,” they say, “also those who feign that they confess the sound faith are schismatics if they hold assemblies apart from bishops who communicate with us. Then also, if certain persons have been rebuked by the Church concerning certain causes and cast out or excommunicated, whether from the clergy or from the lay order, neither are these permitted to accuse a bishop before they have first been freed from their own crime. Similarly, those who are under a prior accusation are not acceptable as accusers of a bishop or of other clerics before they have shown themselves innocent of the crimes alleged against them.” You are not ignorant of what peril threatens those who contemn this rule.
C. II. Heretici probantur qui scismate uel excommunicatione ab ecclesia sunt separati.
Item Nicolaus Papa. [in epistola ad Michaelem Imperatorem, cuius initium est: "Proposueramus."] Quod autem hi, qui iam a fato fratre et conministro nostro Ignatio depositi uel excommunicati, uel anathematizati fuerant, nullam aduersus eum intorquere dampnationem potuerunt, ex prolato secundae uniuersalis sinodi capitulo declaratur, cum dicitur: "Si uero ecclesiasticum fuerit crimen, quod episcopo illatum fuerit, tunc probari oportet accusantium personas, ut primo quidem hereticis non liceat accusationes contra orthodoxos facere episcopos pro ecclesiasticis negotiis." Sed ne hos hereticos esse denegemus, audite sequentia: "Hereticos autem (inquiunt) dicimus tam eos, qui olim ab ecclesia proiecti sunt, quam qui post hec a nobis anathematizati sunt." Porro, si adhuc nec sic creditis, audite quod subditur: "Preter hos autem (aiunt) et eos, qui fidem simulant sanam confiteri, scismaticos esse etiam eos qui seorsum a communicantibus nobis episcopis collectas faciunt. Deinde uero, et si quidam ab ecclesia super causis quibusdam reprehensi sunt, et proiecti aut excommunicati, siue ex clero siue ex laicali ordine, nec his licere accusare episcopum ante, quam crimine proprio exuantur primitus. Similiter autem et eos, qui sub accusatione priori existunt, non ante esse acceptabiles in episcopi accusatione aut aliorum clericorum, quam innoxios semetipsos illatorum sibi ostenderint criminum." Quid autem periculi regulae huius contemptoribus inmineat, non ignoratis.
Friedberg, col. 537/538