From the Council of Toledo, A.D. 633

Canon XLIX. Either paternal devotion or one's own profession makes a monk; whatever of these shall have been bound will hold. Therefore we close to these the way to return to the world, and we forbid every return to the age.

Concerning this custom, which formerly as to clerics the second Council of Toledo, A.D. 527 (see above), did not approve, which nevertheless as to monks afterward obtained in many places, and which the Benedictine rule either had introduced or had strengthened, so that, after boys had been offered to monasteries by their parents, it was impious for them to desert the purpose (the purpose, indeed, of remaining in the monastery and of living the monastic life, although perhaps short of vows), and to return to the world was impious, read Peter Coustant, Epistles of the Roman Pontiffs, at St. Marcellus, section 2. This custom, which this canon of the fourth Council of Toledo confirms, Nicholas I approved less, in the epistle given to all the bishops in the kingdom of Louis, A.D. 867 (cf. his Epistle 117). The same custom at last, little by little, became obsolete, and was rejected by Celestine III, whose decree is extant in the decretals of Gregory IX, L. III, Tit. XXXI, c. 14. Cf. likewise the response XV of Leo to Rusticus, above, and below, Zacharias XXVII from the epistle to Pepin.

Moreover, the same Spanish decree was renewed by the tenth Council of Toledo, A.D. 655, yet with this tempering in Canon VI: that thereafter "parents could have license to hand over their sons to religion no longer than until the tenth (other reading: fourteenth) year of their age." Namely, those who had reached the tenth (other reading: fourteenth) year could be bound by their own will alone.

Canon LII. Certain monks, going out from the monastery, not only return to the world, but also take wives. Therefore these, recalled into the same monastery from which they went out, are to be deputed to penance, and there they are to lament the crimes from which they departed.

Canon LV. Those who have been tonsured by their parents, or of their own accord, their parents having died, have devoted themselves to religion, and afterward have assumed secular habit: these same, being apprehended by the priest, after penance first has been performed, are to be recalled to the worship of religion. But if they cannot return (that is, cannot be recalled, certainly because they do not wish to), truly, as apostates, let them be subjected to the sentence of anathema. This form will be preserved also in widows and sacred virgins and penitent women who have put on the habit of nuns and afterward either changed their garment or passed over to nuptials.

As to the first part of this decree, cf. what was said at Canon XLIX.

Canon LVI. There are two kinds of widows, secular and nuns. Secular widows are those who, still arranging their lay habit, have not put it off; nuns are those who, having already changed secular habit, have appeared under religious dress in the sight of the priest or the Church. These, if they have passed to nuptials, according to the Apostle, will not be without damnation, because, first vowing themselves to God, they afterward cast aside the purpose of chastity.

Among these the tenth Council of Toledo, Canon V, also numbers those who, although they had not received the garment of a nun from a priest or minister, nevertheless either themselves were clothed in it, or consented to be clothed in that habit which by beholders would be believed to be the dress of religion, and thus, having at some time been clothed before the Church or a priest, or even competent witnesses, they proved it by certain indications or testimonies.

It is evident that religious profession was then lawful for women outside cloisters in Spain, and that even tacit profession had force.

Canon LXIII. Jews who have Christian women in marriage are to be admonished by the bishop of that city, that if they desire to remain with them, they become Christians. But if, after being admonished, they are unwilling, let them be separated; because an unbeliever cannot remain in marriage with her who has already been transferred into the Christian faith. Moreover, the children who exist as born from such persons are to follow the faith and condition of the mother. Similarly also those who have been procreated from unbelieving women and faithful men are to follow the Christian religion, not Jewish superstition.

The discourse concerns Christian women who, from Judaism, were converted to Christ after nuptials. Because of the danger of perversion it is prescribed that, unless the husband is converted, they are to be separated, and thus power is given to the Christian woman to enter other nuptials. Indeed, by reason of the same danger, the preceding canon, which is LXII, had decreed that "there shall be no further communion for Hebrews transferred to the Christian faith with those who still remain in the old rite, lest perchance by participation with them they be subverted." But in the third Lateran Council under Alexander III, Canon XXVI, Christians are excommunicated who presume to dwell with Jews or Saracens, under pretext of feeding or educating children of that people, or for service, or from any other cause.