Distinction XXXIV

GRATIAN. Part I. A bishop ought also to avoid immoderate familiarity with persons of his household. Hence Pope Nicholas to Archbishop Adalwin:

It has been intimated to our ears by the report of certain faithful persons that Bishop Lanfred, who is also said to be young, is devoted to hunting. This vice entangles very many even from the clerical catalogue—Germans and Gauls, namely—in irreverence. But this man, if the matter is as we have heard, is deservedly called young, because, occupied by youthful desires, he is restrained by no gravity. For, as blessed Jerome says, we never read of a hunter who was holy. It has likewise been reported to our apostolate concerning this bishop that he maintains immoderate familiarity with a certain daughter of his and that an evil reputation has arisen against him on this account. For this matter he has been admonished and reproved by your holiness and his other fellow bishops, but has in no way amended himself. This matter is especially displeasing in this respect and renders the opinion concerning him worse and worse: that he does not obey the reasonings of your blessedness and his fellow bishops and through disobedience falls back into the fault of the first-created man. §1. Your fraternity therefore ought to summon a synodal council with your bishops and suffragans, address this bishop with salutary words, and command him by pastoral authority to remain entirely alien from hunting any beasts or birds and altogether restrain himself from immoderate familiarity with his daughter. But if he disdains to obey and, when you admonish him both to renounce hunting and to avoid immoderate association with his daughter, delays obedience, let him depart excommunicated from your college.

But if he still appears contumacious in this, he will have to cease from the ministry.

[PALEA.

A bishop, priest, or deacon is not permitted to have dogs for hunting, hawks, or things of this kind. But if anyone among such persons has been detained repeatedly in this pleasure, if he is a bishop, let him be suspended from communion for three months; but let a deacon be suspended from every office and from communion.]

[PALEA.

We prohibit all servants of God from hunts and woodland wanderings with dogs and from having hawks or falcons.] Part II. GRATIAN. A concubine here, however, is understood as a woman who, in the absence of legal instruments, has been united and is taken with marital affection; affection makes her a spouse, while the law names her a concubine. Concerning her it is said in the Council of Toledo [I, c. 17]:

One who does not have a wife and has a concubine in place of a wife is not to be repelled from communion, provided that he is content with union with one woman, either a wife or a concubine.

Likewise Isidore, On the Difference of the Old and New Testaments. A Christian is permitted to have, I shall not say many women, but not even two at the same time; only one wife, or certainly in place of a wife, if a spouse is lacking, one concubine.

[PALEA.

Hear, most beloved members of Christ and sons of mother Catholic Church! Let penitents hear what I say to the competent and faithful. What I say to the faithful I say also to the competent and the penitents. Let the catechumens hear; let all hear; let all fear; let no one despise it. Let your hearing be a consolation to me, lest my grief be a testimony against you. I say to the competent: you are not permitted to fornicate; let your wives suffice for you. Let God hear if you are deaf; let the angels hear if you despise it. You are not permitted to have concubines; and if you do not have wives, you will nevertheless not be permitted to have concubines whom you afterward dismiss and take wives. So much greater will your condemnation be if you wish to have wives and concubines.]

Part III. GRATIAN. But if she was not a concubine of this kind and the age of the man in question is recognized to remove the suspicion of future incontinence, by apostolic concession he can be advanced to the order of the diaconate. Hence Pope Pelagius writes to Bishop Florentinus:

Having received the report of your fraternity, we learned that the bearer of it had indeed not experienced a second marriage, yet you indicated that he had not preserved chastity toward his former marriage. And although there are many things that the authority of canonical sublimity commands to be observed in cases of this kind, nevertheless, because the deficiency of our time, in which not only the merits but the very bodies of men have failed, does not permit the censure of that strictness to remain, and the age of the man in question is recognized to remove the suspicion of future incontinence, know that we have conceded that he can be advanced to the order of the diaconate. §1. But we command that Micina, his female slave, by whom he confessed that he had children after the passing of his wife, be handed over under your direction to any monastery to profess continence. GRATIAN. This is from a dispensation of mercy; but that passage of the Council of Orléans is understood from the rigor of discipline:

If any layman after his wife has known another woman of any condition, let him in no way be admitted to the clergy. Part IV. GRATIAN. Therefore, what is written concerning a mistress and prostitute in Gregory and Innocent is believed to have been established because of the expectation of future incontinence, because one who does not fear to stain himself by illicit intercourse preserves continence with difficulty. Or one who has known a mistress or prostitute with marital affection is prohibited from being ordained, either because, having been corrupted, she had lost the flower of virginity, or because she does not cease to prostitute herself although she is taken as wife. For either impediment prevents anyone from being able to attain sacred orders. Hence Pope Hilary [in the Roman Synod, c. 2] writes, saying:

Care is therefore first to be taken that no one who did not take a virgin as wife should aspire to sacred orders, as was prescribed above in the earlier acts.

Likewise Gregory, prelate of the city of Rome, to the bishop of Squillace [Book II, epistle 25]. We command you never to perform illicit ordinations or permit a twice-married man, one who did not obtain a virgin as wife, one ignorant of letters, one impaired in any part of the body, a penitent, or one bound to the curia or to any condition to approach sacred orders. But if you find any persons of this kind, do not dare to promote them.

Likewise in the Council of Neocaesarea [c. 8]. If anyone’s wife is plainly proved to have committed adultery while he was a layman, he cannot be admitted to ecclesiastical ministry. But if she committed adultery when he was already established in the clerical state, he ought to dismiss her after giving a repudiation. But if he wishes to retain her companionship, he cannot enjoy the ministry he received.

Likewise from the Council of Pope Martin. If the wife of a layman has been caught in adultery, a man of this kind is in no way to be brought to ecclesiastical ministry. But if the wife of any cleric commits adultery after his ordination, let him dismiss her. If, however, he wishes to remain with her, let him be excluded from the ministry. GRATIAN. By the foregoing authorities, twice-married men and those who did not obtain virgins as wives are prohibited from sacred orders. But it is asked: if anyone before baptism took a widow as wife, is he on that account to be prohibited from sacred orders? Concerning these things Pope Innocent writes thus to Victricius, bishop of Rouen [epistle II, cc. 5 and 6]:

If anyone, although a layman, took a widow as wife, whether before baptism or after baptism, let him not be admitted to the clergy, because he appears excluded by the same defect. For crimes are forgiven in baptism; the partnership of a wife already received is not relaxed. §1. But if the woman taken before baptism is not thought to be counted as a wife, then neither are the children begotten before baptism to be held as children. GRATIAN. Twice-married men are also prohibited from every order of the clerical state, according to that passage of Ambrose [epistle LXXXII] to the people of Vercelli:

Let us recognize that not only did the Apostle establish this concerning a bishop and priest, but the fathers also added in the deliberation of the Nicene Council that no one who had obtained a second marriage ought to be a cleric. Part V. GRATIAN. Likewise, husbands of widows, female slaves, or prostitutes cannot become clerics. Hence it is read in the Canons of the Apostles [c. 18]:

If anyone receives a widow or a woman cast out, or a prostitute, or a female slave, or any one of those who are bound to public spectacles, he cannot be a bishop, priest, or deacon, or from the number of those who serve in the sacred ministry. Part VI. GRATIAN. Jerome [epistle CXXVIII] to Fabiola, On the Priestly Vestment, shows who is a widow, a woman cast out, or a prostitute, saying:

A widow is one whose husband has died. A woman cast out is one who is expelled while her husband is living. A prostitute is one who lies open to the lust of many. Part VII. GRATIAN. But afterward, condescending to the deficiency of the times, Pope Martin permitted them to be established in the lesser orders, saying:

If a subdeacon takes a second wife, let him be held among readers or ostiaries, yet so that he does not read the Apostle. GRATIAN. Nevertheless, when necessity requires, twice-married men can be promoted as far as the subdiaconate.

Hence Pope Martin says:

If a reader takes the widow of another as wife, let him remain in the readership, or, if there is necessity, let him become a subdeacon, but nothing above it. Likewise also if he is twice-married. Part VIII. GRATIAN. Those who are prohibited from their own marriages are also forbidden to be present at wedding banquets. Hence it is read in the Council of Agde [c. 39]:

Priests, deacons, subdeacons, or those thereafter who do not have license to take wives are also to avoid the banquets of others’ weddings and not mingle with those assemblies where amorous and shameful songs are sung or obscene movements of bodies are displayed in choruses and dances, lest hearing and sight deputed to the sacred mysteries be polluted by the contagion of shameful spectacles and words. Part IX. GRATIAN. A widow, however, is to be understood as one who after the solemn covenant of marriage was separated from her husband by the intervention of death. But if before they come together they are divided from one another by fatal necessity, although she is called a wife by reason of the betrothal, nevertheless after the death of the betrothed she is not called a widow, even if she was led into his house and veiled with him; nor is anyone prohibited from sacred orders by union with her. Hence Pope Pelagius writes:

Let no obstacle be generated in promoting the cleric Valentinus, to whom a woman who was previously veiled with another but not married to him, and who remained a virgin, was joined by a conjugal bond after the death of the betrothed with whom she had been veiled, because she received the veil a second time; for, insofar as pertains to this article, there is nothing in the canonical enactments that stands against him.