...and God will hear our cry, and will say, while we are yet speaking: Do not be cast down by sorrow; I am here. A
OF THE MOST HOLY PATRIARCH OF ANTIOCH, LORD THEODORE BALSAMON, EPISTLE TO THE MOST HOLY PROFESSOR OF THE PAPICION MONASTERIES, THE MONK LORD THEODOSIUS, CONCERNING THE RASOPHORI.
(Cotel., Monumenta Eccles. Gr. tom. III.)
B The great teacher of the holy Churches of God, and divine herald, the Apostle Paul says: Be swift to hear, slow to speak. It was therefore fitting, O faithful servant of God, that our insignificance should rather lend you a listening ear than let loose a tongue to instruct you concerning the questions asked. Although the canon uses the term *rasophorein* [bearing the raso]; because there it treats of novices, for whom it was more proper to be clothed in the raso and to wear the raso. Correct in passing a similar word in Caesarius, question 111, question 158; read *rypémones* [squalid ones] and *rakophorous* [rag-wearers]; *rypómosin* or *rakiphiois* [in rags]. *Rypémonas*, or *rypémosin*. *Bánausos* [vulgar], *báskanos* [envious], *philegklémon* [litigious], *eidechthémon* [loathsome], *edechtheímon*, *bánausos*, *eidehthés* [loathsome], *eisdechtés* [having been received]. C
1. The great teacher of the holy Churches of God and divine herald the Apostle Paul says: Be swift to hear, slow to speak. It was therefore fitting, O faithful servant of God, that our insignificance should rather be ready to hear you than to let loose a tongue to teach on the matters inquired of. Although [the scholars] have explained [these matters] among the learned—the illustrious Salmasius, Meursius, Menardus, Goar, and Fresnius and others—there was left to me for my gleanings a notable passage of Matthew Blastares, in his Canonical Syntagma, under the letter mu, chapter 15, in the canon of Basil 19: "Monks who have not made such a profession, having become only *rasendutai* [garment-wearers], are not able to be transformed or to enter into marriage." I said it was a notable passage, for I do not remember reading that term elsewhere. Wherefore I consulted the manuscript codices of this city. And I found written [this term], which is a vulgar name. This is better; both because Matthew follows Balsamon according to his custom, and because Balsamon, regarding that canon, uses the word...
A for although we have been anointed by the mercy of God with the chrism of ordination, yet we are commissioned to grease the sharers of this earth with the oil of instruction; wherefore we also struggle after the manner of those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. But since it is forbidden for bishops stationed outside their province to teach, yet it is considered lawful to render an account regarding those things about which they are asked—for, "Our lips," he says, "are with us"—we have sent to you this present boy, our discourse, who shall satisfy your questions; not adorned, as it was proper to be, with golden vestments and sophistic fringes, but rather with unskilled and sordid cloaks; for such is the stuff that an exterior loom knows how to weave. If, therefore, he answers something apt and suitable to the inquiry, let him be received with friendliness; but if he reeks of inexperience, let him be sent back to the father who begot him, who has already provided for a just dismissal.
β'. You have written to us that some of the B Rasophoroi of the holy monastery under you, being forced to be perfected by tonsure, say that the great Basil in certain of his ascetic instructions determined that he who is to become a monk should be tested for a triennium, and after the passing of this time, should receive the grace of the tonsure, or else depart from the monastery and fall back to his former lay manner of life, taking back also the garments he wore before coming to the monastery; for he commanded that these be kept in a safe place. Why, then, are we forced before the three years to be burdened with the weight of the tonsure? It is likely that within this time we might change our minds and prefer a softer and labor-free life to one that is austere and laborious, and cast off the monastic dress, and put on garments that are purple and interwoven with gold; and even, indeed, to eat meat and be lawfully united to wives; and if it should be necessary, even to be conscripted into the army and to be girded with the belts of imperial dignities. Leave, therefore, the grace of the appointed time inviolate. Perhaps he will pass through it running straight with the same purpose, and will confirm the collection of the promise. But if you press the tradition against the decrees, we ourselves will grant us absolution from repentance. Furthermore, those who reverence the perfection of the charism ought rather to be approved than punished, to bring an offering of thanks and not reproaches, to be proclaimed and not disavowed. For reverence toward divine things establishes the purity of faith; whereas a D ready irreverence toward them exhibits the corruption of unbelief.
γ. Then they say: You wish those who are wrestlers and others competing in the pancratium to be exercised through a fixed period of time; yet you compel those who take up the pentathlon of the senses to engage with their adversary without exercise; and yet these, more than those, ought to have been admitted to the contest of asceticism with a trial. For those compete against visible [enemies],
A and meet them in close-quarters combat, and in their thrusts they strike, and being attacked they defend themselves. But these, wrestling against invisible enemies and contending with unexpected adversaries, being shot at in secret, cannot openly shoot back. And, as though they were wounded, being struck, they do not dare to strike back because of their ignorance of the one who strikes them.
And what is greater and exceeds every evil is that, at times, being covered with shame by this malice, they accept the lashes without knowing it, and they consider their wrestling wounds to be letters of reconciliation, the work of the sword to be the work of a friend, missiles to be celebrations, lethal things to be life-giving, dark things to be luminous, warlike things to be peaceful, poisons to be remedies, foul-smelling things to be fragrant, and deadly things to be salutary. For those who govern the darkness against them, being their enemies, shoot at them from the shadows, smearing their arrows with deceitful and false honey. It is necessary, therefore, that those who are attacked by invisible enemies be tested for a sufficient time and through a long exercising of the grindstone, and in that way, either be rejected or enrolled among the runners in the stadium.
4. And these are what your letter contained. But we say that the great one among B the holy Fathers, Basil, the glory of the Caesareans and teacher of the whole world, in his divinely-taught discourses which prescribe the form of monastic exercise, and especially in one of those which includes these words in its title: «Whether it is fitting to admit all who come, or only some, and whether to admit them immediately, or with a trial, and of what sort?» He defines that those who wish to undergo the light yoke of the Lord should be admitted and not repulsed; yet he does not wish for them to touch holy things with unwashed hands, but desires that if any of them are ignorant of the more perfect dogmas, yet have been taught certain evil and promiscuous habits, there should be an inquiry, and they should be taught and reformed for the better, C and thus, after exercise and accurate exploration, they should either be admitted or sent away. In vain, therefore, and with a slanderous purpose, do those who fabricate and invent the aforesaid things lie against the holy Father.
5. Furthermore, since some assert that the great Pachomius, when he was taught the discipline of the monastic life by an angel through a miracle, learned with others that those who wear the raso are to be exercised for a triennium, and thus either be perfected through blessing D and tonsure, or be rejected and released to their former worldly state; let them also hear: it is a fable and a clear Satanic mockery against the great Father. For his books, having been examined not only by us, but also by many others who are skilled in divine matters, are shown to decree other things that are consistent with monastic piety; but concerning a trial, and a triennium, and those wearing the raso or those not wearing the raso, nothing is written in them. Regarding the one desiring to dwell with them, [he should] first [be tested].
A 6. Verum, they say, the great Father in Patras, Cassianus the Roman or Latin, decrees that one who has been cast out from the world and approaches the brotherhood of a monastery should not be tonsured immediately, but should be tested for a triennium in monastic garments; so that if he refuses the more rugged discipline of the monastic life, he may withdraw without fault or prejudice, and not become a participant in the carnal desire. Further, they say, the same abbas decrees that the garments with which the one approaching came to the monastery should be kept by the steward; so that, indeed, he has the license to put off the monastic [garments] and to put on again his own secular ones. Let them hear then, and those same ones, how, having diligently read and perused this book, we found that a calumny is being perpetrated against the Father. For first of all, the Father did not write down such things as he wrote because he was outlining or canonizing the practice of the monastic way of life; but, as he says in the prefaces, wishing to instruct a certain bishop, Castor, according to his request, in the regulations of the Eastern coenobia and especially those of the Egyptians, so that the monks of his monastery might also act in the same way, he wrote whatever he wrote as if in the form of a narrative. And it is not right to hold as canonical regulations those things which have not been confirmed by any holy synod, nor to follow them, especially where they are contrary to the canons.
B 7. Then, even if one were to grant that these [rules] ought to be kept, as having been canonized or decreed by a holy Father, I judge that not even these enjoin that the divine and sacred vestments and the monastic habit be insulted; to such an extent that he who today walks in the streets in shaved garments might tomorrow go about in silk. For after he decreed that no one should be received into a monastery before providing some demonstration of his longing toward C God, and toiling for a triennium in the more difficult tasks, and thus participating in their life together—now, the one having entered once to remain with them, [you] shall not receive him into the contest of the more secret things until the triennium; but having done the more laborious works, thus let him enter into the stadium after the triennium.
D If anyone wished to dwell with them, he should exercise himself in more difficult works for the space of a triennium, and only then at last be associated with their society. These are the words of the prior in *Eccl. Hist.* bk. 4, which Nicephorus follows according to custom in his bk. 14. Palladius, however, writes in his *Lausiaca* c. 33: "Furthermore, him who has once entered to remain with them, you shall not receive unto the contest of the more secret things until the triennium; but when he has performed the more difficult works, thus they proceed into the stadium after the triennium."
Regarding the note on "apokrimatistos" (unprejudiced/without judgment), as it appears as "apokrimatiston" in promiscuous reading both in manuscripts and in printed books, the first is tolerable, the second is medium. But if you ask for some examples, I shall indicate them: in the *Juris Graeco-Romani* p. 222, 232, 211, 565, 372, 373, and 452; in the *Euchologii* p. and in Balsamon p. 402, 559, 540, 854. But also in the *Jure Greco-Rom.* p. 591, in the ms. Joliano it is... but these words grate on my ears, so much so that I might speak of the difficult name, which occurs twice in the epistle of Facundus Hermianensis, published in volume iii of the *Spicilegium* by the pious and learned monk Luc d'Achery, who has deserved excellently well for his editing of letters. He calls the impugner of the three chapters the Hermianensis Necrodioctas and Porcianistas. "Necrodioctas" is of easy understanding. He is a persecutor of the dead, but why Porcianistas? I suspected at first that because of the things which are brought forward by the same Facundus in his book against Mocianus or Mutianus regarding Sorcius and Surcius, it should be put as Sorcianistas in the Epistle, or Porciam in the book. I feared afterwards lest this might not satisfy everyone, and might seem to some to fit less well with the series of the context. Therefore, I sought within myself some equivalent word that might be more convenient for the place, nor could I devise anything other than "crimatistas" from "prejudice," before judgment is passed. "In this now," the epistle says, "consists the whole question of the judgment of the living and the dead." Below: "But they, by forestalling the judgment of God, and by perpetrating in a death-dealing work the condemnation of the dead and the living who do not agree with them, etc." And shortly after: "They ought to have waited for Christ, who is to come at a pre-appointed time from the heavens to judge the living and the dead, and not they themselves now, both the living we, and the dead of old, the catholic pontiffs, not only to judge, but also to condemn as if by a sentence of perpetual anathema." And with other things interposed: "They have raised the crests of pride against God, by prescribing his judgment, and by establishing a new error through the condemnation of the living and the dead." Therefore, I have not entirely rejected either divination, awaiting the judgments and proofs of the learned, and meanwhile indulging my own wit, which, as it has always been allowed to do in such obscure matters, will never not be allowed.
A For when he has exhibited this with no mediocre probation, it admonishes him word for word: "Therefore, everyone is thus stripped of his ancient property, so that he is not even permitted to wear the garment in which he arrived; but all the brethren being gathered and he being brought into the midst, he is divested of his own garments, and through the hands of the abbot is clothed in the vestments of the monastery; so that by this type he may recognize that, stripped of all worldly things and of boasting and pride, he has put on the poverty of Christ, and that he unashamedly numbers himself with and equates himself to the body of the brotherhood." The vestments, however, of which he is divested, the steward of the monastery takes and keeps set aside for a long time, until he has provided a demonstration of his progress, of his good conduct, and of his endurance in various temptations. And if indeed they find that he is able to persevere in these, and that he remains in the zeal and ardent fervor with which he began, they number him with the rest; but if they perceive in him some vice of murmuring, or a sin of any disobedience, they strip him of what he had put on from the monastery, and, covering him in secular garments, they thrust him out of the monastery; so that from this rigor of discipline it may not henceforth be easy for one who wishes to depart from the monastery at will; but that he who does not remain in every way in his profession should receive back his worldly attire, and thus be released from the monastery.
8. C Let the opponents therefore say: from these words does this great Father concede that one who is being instructed may wear a shorn habit and take on the habit of monks, and then again, with a change of mind, be transfigured back into a layman? "Certainly," they say. For he defines that he who approaches should be divested of the garment he was wearing when he came to the monastery, and that this garment should be kept in a safe place, but that he himself, having changed his clothing, should be vested by the hands of the abbot in the vestments of the monastery, so that when the time calls for it, if he should appear unfit for the monastic life, he may be divested of the monastery's vestments and clothed in secular ones; and that the vestments of the monastery are monastic, and the secular ones are lay, is not unknown. Yet the Father did not say that he who approaches is to be clothed merely in cheap garments, but in the garments of the monastery. D For if perchance he had put on the attire of a soldier, purple or even interwoven with gold, he will not be permitted to abide in the monastery with it, both on account of impropriety and so that the body, unnerved by soft garments, may not puff itself up; but he wishes laymen to spend their time with garments of small value, suitable for clothing and pertaining to the monastery. From the fact that the Father says that those who have approached exchange their clothing for monastic attire, it is not indicated by way of opposition that they... [original-script column: see facsimile]
A had been dressed in monastic clothing before the change of dress. For nothing prevented that blessed man from mentioning the monastic garments and the change of dress customary among monks. But the designation of secular clothing implies this: that he who is rejected should not be sent away with the garments of the monastery, but with his own, namely those with which he was accustomed to be dressed in the world. For this reason, he also commanded that these be kept by the steward.
9. It is fit, therefore, that those who leap from the turmoil of this life to the monastic life should be trained like an untamed heifer, and especially those who have led a life that is unapproved and dangerous. For even if the Lord says in the Gospels, "Come to me, all you who labor B and are burdened, and I will refresh you," and from this it might seem to be safe to receive all without worry, yet, since the same God and Savior of ours questioned the young man much about his former life, and after receiving assurance concerning his excellent life, asserted [the need for] perfection and commanded him to follow Him, it is just and canonical that those who, neither through purity of life nor through acquaintance with good character, have appeared before the trial suitable to bear the light yoke of the Lord, should be investigated and tested over a long period of time. But that the testing should take place for a three-year period while wearing monastic garments, and that those who have taken the habit C should be given permission, within such a time limit, if they are displeased with the hardship of the solitary life, to strip off their monastic garments and put on lay clothing, does not seem to me to be canonical, nor worthy of our life and profession. But hear from where I say this.
10. The three-year period of trial was not handed down by any holy Father, as the preceding discourse has made clear. But the holy and ecumenical synod which assembled at Constantinople, D which is called the First and Second, says in its fifth canon these words literally: "We find that renuntiations made without judgment and trial bring great harm to the good order of the monastic life. For some, recklessly casting themselves into the monastic life, and acting slothfully towards the harsh and laborious labor of the ascetic life, miserably return again to a carnally-minded and voluptuous life. Therefore, the holy synod has decreed that no one shall be judged worthy of the monastic habit before the three-year period, granted to them for trial, has shown them to be approved and worthy of such a life." And it commanded that this be held in every way, unless some grave sickness should befall someone and force the time of trial to be shortened, or unless there be some man who is pious and has been living the monastic life while in secular dress. For such a man, to complete the trial, a six-month period shall suffice. But if someone should act contrary to these things, let the superior of the monastery, losing his position, find the correction of the unobserved order to be a life led in obedience;
and let the monk be handed over to another monastery A that observes monastic strictness. Since the canon determines these things and prescribes that the probation of those unaccustomed to the struggle should take place over three years, but that of accustomed and pious persons over a period of six months, and that otherwise no one should change his habit; how then will those who have changed their habit be permitted, as if they were natives, alumni, and our own fellow-tribesmen, to await for a long time according to their own will the change from the monastic life to the lay habit, and to prattle against canonical rights?
11. But perhaps they will say that the canon does not speak about those who wear the monastic habit, but about those who have changed the clerical tonsure before the running out of the appointed time; and therefore it supports those wearing the habit who await the completion of the prescribed time, while it condemns B those who are in a hurry to receive the angelic enrollment before the three-year term. For it does not wish that one who before the battle is judged useless for fighting should be placed as a vanguard, nor that one who before the struggle appears feeble should struggle as a strong man; lest for him who has recruited them, and for himself, and for the other disciples, the victory should turn into shame, and the manifestations into vanishings. Let these new and recent lawgivers of theirs, therefore, hear these things too, who swallow the camel and strain out the gnat. The fifth Justinian Novella, which was inserted in the third chapter of the eleventh title of the Nomocanon, says these things expressly: "Those who wish to profess the monastic life, whether they are free or slaves, let them first persevere for three years, using C the tonsure and clothing of laymen, learning the Scriptures, and confessing their condition and the reason why they wish to become monks, lest perhaps it be evil, and let them be admonished; and if they persevere for three years and appear worthy to become monks, then let them be tonsured and freed from servitude." The seventeenth chapter of the fourth book of the Basilika, which is part of the 123rd Justinian Novella, decrees these things word for word: "To all without exception who have lived in the secular life, and especially those who practice theatrical arts, men and women, and furthermore prostitutes, we forbid the use of the habit of a monk or a nun, or to imitate it in any way; with all who dare to use such a habit, or to imitate it, or to mock any ecclesiastical constitution whatsoever, knowing that D they shall suffer both bodily punishments and be handed over to exile."
12. These two Novellae, therefore, decree in plain words that the training be carried out with lay clothing;
A nor indeed could any one say that mimes mimic the monastic life through the tonsuring of their hair and the holy initiation of prayers, and that the tonsure is to be understood from this as the "change of form." How, then, do these same men, possessed by Satanic fury, behave so shamelessly and contemptibly against the solitary way of life? When in fact the fifth canon of the First and Second Council in Constantinople, set down from on high—if it possessed a living voice and stood upon its own arms and hands—would have gagged them, not by the cupful, but by the whole vessel. For behold, even the canon itself, brought to perfection and maturity by the holy Fathers and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, when questioned by these hypocrites and pretenders as to how the meaning of "change of form" is understood and accepted, cries out like a Stentor: "The monastic habit and form is not the consecration and the tonsure, but the putting on of the monastic garments." For it sets forth two habits, the worldly and the monastic, and says that no one is to be deemed worthy of the monastic habit before the three years, unless one has conducted the life of a monk while in the worldly habit; for then even six months will suffice as a period for testing. B
13. Let them explain, therefore, how the "change of form" is to be interpreted as the tonsure, when the canon makes mention of the worldly habit. If the meaning of the "habit" is understood as the tonsure, which effects or consecrates perfection, then the evangelical word (8)—which says, "For the form of this world is passing away"—must also be understood as signifying the tonsure, which is absurd. Likewise, when it is commonly said, "He assumed a manner of friendship," and "He assumed a matter of righteous action," and so forth. Since these are not understood in such a way, it is established that the monastic habit is not only the change of form that involves the tonsure, but also the change of vesture effected by monastic clothing. C But by what reasoning could any impartial judge say that the monastic habit is the "perfected tonsure," when the cited Novella of Justinian says that he who makes mockery of the monastic habit in the manner of mimes is to be punished? If the meaning of the "habit" were to be understood as those eager for such learning would have it, one might indeed say that even unshorn mimes and dancers, who rejoice more in their hair than in the intelligent excellence of the head, [are] cutting off their golden-colored hair in imitation; D and that he who yesterday valued the hair of his crown more than much gold and topaz, casting it away for small obols and acting as if under the lash—this exceeds all putridity of speech.
14. It is concluded, therefore, from true and irrefutable propositions that not only is the unapproved tonsure punished by the canon, but also the very change of habit. And just as he who, having attained to a perfect
A tonsure before the three-year period appointed has elapsed is not permitted to repudiate his profession and return to secular life under the pretext of tonsure, but is handed over to another monastery that observes exact discipline; so also he who has worn the raso before the three years are up will not be heard if he says: "I have repented; for the burden of the monastic life seems most heavy to me, and as a weight to be abjured and fled from; I desire, therefore, not to have the hull of my soul any longer submerged by the weight of the monastic state, but to be lifted up along with the laity." Rather, he will hear this: "It was permitted to you beforehand to consider these things with Prometheus, and in the habit of a layman to acquire sufficient probation and experience of your own strength; but because you voluntarily renounced the probation and assumed the habit of monks, you shall no longer be permitted, on account of your foolish Epimetheus, to return to the evil from which you once emerged well; but you shall be compelled, like an ox unaccustomed to the yoke, to recognize God your possessor, and like the ass B the manger of its Lord; and if you do not properly and faithfully order your conduct, and do not make your profession in the way of His testimonies, you shall be delivered to the jurisdiction of the episcopal sentence, and shall be cast into prison. Amen, Amen I say to you, you shall not go out from there, until you pay the last farthing of the tonsure."
15. To this they will say: "And how, when the canon decrees that no one should change their habit before the three years have passed, do those who today preside over monasteries throughout the whole world—and who receive those coming to them without even a single day of delay in the monastic life—not only bestow upon them, without discernment, another habit and name, but also consecrate them by tonsure? If the words of the canon are understood and accepted as it has been said above, the superiors of monks ought, without much inquiry, to have admitted those who requested to dwell in the monastery in the monastic state and to lead the life of monks; they should rather have instructed them in the canonical oracle and ordered them first to be exercised in the lay habit, and only thus to be clothed later, having changed their vestments like monks; which, since it is not done by them at all, those who have put on the raso in the hope of probation and repentance easing the undertaking which exceeds their strength C as not being responsible for their actions, will be worthy of pardon; but the superiors and sponsors who have violated the sentence of the divine canon will be subjected to canonical penalties."
16. Let them hear, therefore, also to this, that the canonical decree and oracle which has been discussed was rightly elucidated and interpreted by the grace of God; but the superiors of the monasteries do not do anything at all that is uncanonical, nor do they oppose the Fathers, when they transform those who come to them into the monastic habit, or consecrate them by tonsure; for it says in the third chapter of the first title of the fourth book
A of the *Basilica*, which is chapter 34 of the 123rd Novel of Justinian, this word for word: "If anyone wishes to enter the monastic life, we command that if it is known that he is subject to no condition, the superior of the monastery, when he recognizes this, shall grant him the habit; but if it is not known whether he is subject to any condition, he shall not receive the monastic habit within three years; but within the said time, let the one who is his hegumen keep his life and conduct under trial." The canon also of the Trullan council, which determines that one who has attained the age of twelve years is to be tonsured, adds that it is in the power of the presiding superior to assess his probation, if he considers that an extension of time is more conducive to his introduction and establishment in the monastic life.
B 17. Nothing, therefore, is unseemly or contrary to the canons which the directors of monasteries perform when they transform those who approach them into the habit without waiting for the passage of a three-year period. For it was permitted to them to do this indiscriminately whenever the one who approaches is freeborn and a local, or is known to them in any other way. Wherefore they have also placed upon them another sign, which shows those who look upon them the insignia of the flock itself, namely, the most holy vestments. They have suspended the perfecting and consecrating tonsure, not for the sake of probation, as those grave fabricators of lies and adulterators of the truth say, nor have they made the change of habit as a balance inclined toward both sides; but so that he who has been transfigured in habit may be nourished with milk through discipline, may reach adolescence through C obedience, may reach the prime of life through prayer, may attain virility through continence, and may be perfected through humility; and so, as an irreproachable soldier of Christ, he may stand before the One who enrolled him as a brave, armed wrestler, a javelin thrower, clothed in chastity as a breastplate, in repentance as a shield, in obedience as a helmet, in prayer as a bow and arrow, in silence and quiet as a spear, in continence as a sword, in patience as a scabbard, and in humility as a shield made of seven ox-hides; and, simply, as a most perfect combatant, neither retreating because of the frontal battle of Satan, which indeed meets him impudently and face-to-face, nor running forward because of the rear and hidden one; but in the close-quarters struggle of the thoughts of the passions, let him leap forth as one inexpugnable, and in the crafty and D treacherous ones let him turn aside as one safe from snares: then let him ward off those who observe the opportunity for victory by attacking from the right, by means of the dexterity of discernment, and let him put to shame those who attack from the left with holy psalmody. For the true soldier of God knows on the right
and on the left to wield the rigid weapon of salvation.
18. When therefore the sponsor establishes as a soldier of God him who is being sponsored, just as the guide establishes the one being guided, and the teacher the disciple, he presents him to the King and God, as a skilled commander, and by gentle words seeks to confirm his former promise to God through a second commitment of his purpose, freed from oaths. This is what is also customarily done in the enrollment of soldiers for an earthly king. But there, only an enrollment of military service is completed; here, however, a liberation from worldly captivity is also granted. For the carnal fetter which Satan himself had fastened upon him, he cuts through by the sword that divides flesh and spirit. Then, just as fellow soldiers and companions receive a man who has fled the shackles of a worldly prison—as the jailers received the great Paul—and greet, kiss, and embrace him who has been snatched away by robbers or led into captivity, and freed from the hands of the robbers or from his captivity, and welcome him with ointment and artfully prepared aromatics; finally, after the divine kiss, there follows the carrying of lamps, with a procession and songs of victory.
19. In this same way and for this same reason, it is understood by me for the time being that the completion by tonsure of those who are untested should be suspended and deferred; not, of course, so that they may mock the holy monastic habit like stage actors, and like dogs return to their own vomit. The Rasophoros therefore who is admonished by his own teacher C to be perfected by tonsure, and yet defers the grace of the gift, and even worse, makes excuses, maintaining that he has it in his own power to be led by evil repentance and to return to his former worldly manner of life, is like a man who has fallen into the open sea, and who, while striving with hands and feet to find salvation, averts himself from the right hand of the one drawing him toward safety; or like a man who seeks the cancellation of debt and tears up the quittance of the creditor; or a man who entrusts seeds to the earth but does not harvest the ears of corn; or, to use a more appropriate analogy, like a man under the scourge who would wish to pass through fire because he would not suffer the trouble of shackles; like a man who fears to fight with strong arms but would nevertheless engage in battle without armor; like a man who rejects the full light of the giant or the sun, and, while being blind, wishes a tiny spark to heal him; like a man, finally, who would reckon the safety of the harbor to be a shipwreck.
20. These things have been thus judged and ordained by us; thus the arduous language of the divine canons has been made plain. D
A Migne’s note: The uneven has been made level; thus the rugged and impassable has become easy to travel through and smooth, as it seems to us for the time being. If, therefore, it seems pleasing also to your holiness, thanks be to God; but if not, let it be as we have declared to you in the preface.
ANALYTICAL INDEX
TO THE COMMENTARIES OF THEODORE BALSAMON, ZONARAS, AND ARISTENUS ON THE CANONS OF THE HOLY APOSTLES, THE COUNCILS, AND THE EPISTLES OF THE HOLY FATHERS.The reader is referred to the bolder numbers inserted into the text. The Roman numeral indicates the volume, the Arabic numeral the page. The second volume of the Beveridge edition, which we have followed, begins, in our numbering, at column 455 of our second volume.
A Aaron, brought forward in excuse, II, 44. Abdicate, what it means, II, 27. Abortion, by means of medicinal substances, I, 265. Abramius the sinner, II, 280. Abscess, what it is, II, 4. On the absence of clergy from their churches, I, 250. On abstinence from meats and other things, I, 34. On abstinence from women, I, 516. Under Abundantius, a synod, I, 561. The abuse of those things which God has made is harmful, I, 34. Accumbo (to recline) is the same as ἀνακλῖναι, I, 244. Accubitus (reclining), what it is, I, 214. The reclining on Sunday in holy places or churches is forbidden, I, 213. Accusers: slaves and freedmen, and all infamous persons, ought not to accuse, I, 663. Accusations: those who are not in communion are not to be admitted [to bring accusations], I, 663. An accusation against a bishop or cleric is to be tried first before the metropolitan; if, however, etc., I, 138; II, 131. On the accusation of presbyters and deacons, I, 516. Accuser: cannot produce domestic witnesses, I, 663. Let him keep his honor unshaken, I, 511. Whom an accuser cannot call as a witness, I, 666. Who are called domestic witnesses of an accuser, I, 666. That he who is accused, or he who accuses, if in the place, etc., let him choose a place near to himself, I, 555. Acephali, who they are called, II, 11. Acerbity and agitation of mind, I, 61. On Achar, II, 28. Stoned with stones, ibid. Achilles, a kind of game, I, 218. Action: every action pertaining to a venerable house does not exceed forty years, I, 134, 652. An action of which fear is the cause is free, and it is permitted for him against whom the action is brought, etc., II, 35. It is not the action, but the intent of the mind that is punished, I, 664. On actions of clerics against one another, I, 122, 530. On initiating actions, and within what time according to regions or dioceses, I, 133. Actors: all plaintiffs and defendants are to be summoned by thirty-day edicts, I, 511. Adam: God made Adam neither mortal nor immortal, I, 615. Those who deny that infants draw anything from the sin of their parent Adam, I, 616. On the addition made to the holy hymn, I, 231. Ἀδελφιδή (niece) is the same as ἀνεψιά, I, 15. Adeodatus simidicita, I, 682. Administration: to whom the administration of ecclesiastical affairs pertains, I, 26, 28. A bishop or presbyter ought not to lower himself to public administrations, I, 53. On holy administration, II, 171. Adolescents: the insolence of the Athenian youths concerning the reception of visiting sophists with pomp, I, 220. Adoption: is performed by sacred prayers, I, 220. Adoption imitates nature, I, 220. Eunuchs are forbidden to adopt a son, I, 220. Adopt: it is permitted even for virgins to adopt, I, 221. Adopted persons are not to be joined in marriage with the children of the one who adopts, I, 220. On adoration to be performed on Sundays and from Easter to Pentecost, I, 698. Adrianopolis, bishop of, I, 678. Adrianopolitans use the blood of animals with certain foods, I, 237. Adrumetana, a synod, I, 561. Adversari (to oppose), or to doubt about any matter, to delay, I, 102. Adulteress: whether she can be called such who cohabits with a man after being dismissed, I, 64. On an adulteress, and what she is called, I, 208. On one who receives an adulteress, I, 289. The difference between an adulterer and a fornicator, I, 32. Adulterers' punishment, I, 259. Adulterers' ecclesiastical penalty, I, 32. On adulterers, II, 58. On adulterous wives and their husbands, I, 408. The crime of adultery, which persons can bring to court, I, 408. One caught in adultery ought not to be promoted to a further grade of the clergy, I, 10. Adultery is admitted by the arrival of conversation, I, 423. A woman who confesses to having committed adultery is not condemned, I, 408. On adultery, II, 157. Æcytii, the condemnation of the bishop of, I, 601. Æcytii's prodigious communion, I, 613. Impudence and wickedness, I, 630. In a holy building: beasts are not to be brought in, unless the greatest necessity urges it, I, 261. On sacred buildings that have been despoiled, and their restitution, I, 313. Editui (sextons), the office of, brings little profit, I, 57. If anyone, being sick, has been baptized, he cannot be raised to the presbyterate, I, 411. Aelia: so called by Hadrian, I, 66. Aelia was called Solyma and Jebus in antiquity, II, 114. On the bishop of Aelia, I, 68. The Patriarch of Jerusalem, I, 66. Aemilianus, summoned as a judge in the synod, I, 663. Equinoctium (equinox): at one time other, I, 5. What the vernal equinox is, ibid. On the vernal equinox, II, 215. Aeren: those striking with their fingers, I, 231. Aetius, bishop, I, 504. Affection: is apparent from the instrument of the one who struck, I, 664. Affinity: spiritual affinity is greater than that of bodies, I, 220. Afri (Africans): called Carthaginians, I, 367. Africa divided into many provinces, I, 509. On those in Africa who do not communicate and wish to withdraw themselves overseas, I, 642. Ἀγάπη (Love/Agapae): I, 214. Agapae, what they are called, I, 465. How it is fitting to celebrate Agapae, II, 17. On those who despise Agapae made from faith, I, 421. Agapae are by no means to be held in churches, I, 243. On those called to Agapae, I, 465. On Agapius and Bagadius, both claiming the bishopric of Bostra, I, 678. By the Agarenes, children of Christians captured in war, I, 254. Baptized by them, and from whom they receive them, I, 254. Baptized infants, ibid. On the baptized infants of the Agarenes, I, 12.