From the Council of Tours, A.D. 567

Canon XII. Let a bishop have his wife as a sister, and in holy conversation let him govern the whole house, both ecclesiastical and his own, so that no suspicion concerning him may arise by any reason ...

Canon XV. If there are any converted in a monastery, or if they have willed to be converted, let them by no means have license thereafter to wander, nor, because they are absent, let any of them lead a wife or have familiarity with strange women. For if, as has been said above, he has led a wife, let him be excommunicated and, even by the help of the judge, separated from the consortship of an ill-associated wife.

The marriages of monks who have been converted in a monastery are judged void.

Canon XX. We, following this, which either the Apostle Paul or Pope Innocent (to Victricius) established, bringing it into our canons, decree that it is to be observed that no one shall presume to abduct or claim or associate to himself as wife a sacred virgin of God, who has changed her garment in honor of Christ; because even the Roman law established that whoever perhaps has abducted a sacred virgin of God or a widow, if afterward it comes to agreement with them about the union, they shall be struck by capital sentence (Law 1, Cod. Theod., concerning abduction or marriage).

Cf. Decree XII of Innocent, above; Canon XVI of the Council of Orleans, A.D. 538. The law to which the Fathers appeal is the law of Constantius, which Iovinianus renewed, increased with capital punishment. In Cod. Theod. L. IX, Tit. XXV, De Raptu, l. 1: If anyone, I do not say shall abduct, but shall even attempt, for the sake of joining marriage, sacred virgins or unwilling women (or widows?), he shall be struck by capital sentence.

Canon XXI. Concerning incestuous unions, however, we judge that the old statutes of the canons are not to be broken ... Therefore it has also pleased us to touch on a few things from the volumes of the books and to insert them in the canons, so that, the reading taken out from other books, it may be recited to the people in one. For thus the Lord has spoken, Lev. XVIII. 7: You shall not uncover the shame of your father and the shame of your mother ... (up to verse 20 inclusively). And likewise the sacred sentence of the laws says (Cod. Theod., concerning incestuous nuptials, law 3), which in this explanation is open to every man, learned as much as unlearned: that whoever shall join to himself in criminal nuptials either the daughter of a sister or brother, or a female cousin of a further degree, or the wife of a brother, let him be subject to this penalty, that he be separated from such consortship. Likewise another law (ibid., law 4): Whatever woman shall have accepted the husband of her sister after the death of the latter, or if anyone of the men, his wife being dead, shall join her sister to himself in other nuptials, let him know that by such consortship he is notable. Then the canons from the first Synod of Orleans, Canon XVIII, Epaon, Canon XXX, and Auvergne, Canon XII, above, are cited. They add: We strengthen in all things that which our fathers established.