Ancient Epitome of Canon XXV.
Let the ordination of bishops be within three months: necessity however may make the time longer. But if anyone shall ordain counter to this decree, he shall be liable to punishment. The revenue shall remain with the oeconomus.
Bright.
The "Steward of the Church" was to "take care of the revenues of the church widowed" by the death of its bishop, who was regarded as representing Him to whom the whole Church was espoused (see Eph. v. 23 ff.). So in the "order of the holy and great church" of St. Sophia, the" Great Steward is described as "taking the oversight of the widowed church" (Goar, Eucholog., p. 269); so Hincmar says: "Si fuerit defunctus episcopus, ego ... visitaterem ipsi viduatae designabo ecclesiae; "and the phrase, "viduata per mortem N. nuper episcopi" became common in the West (F. G. Lee, Validity of English Orders, p. 373). The episcopal ring was a symbol of the same idea. So at St. Chrysostom's restoration Eudoxia claimed to have "given back the bridegroom" (Serm. post redit., iv.). So Bishop Wilson told Queen Caroline that he "would not leave his wife in his old age because she was poor" (Keble's Life of Wilson, ii., 767); and Peter Mongus, having invaded the Alexandrian see while its legitimate occupant, Timothy Salophaciolus, was alive, was expelled as an "adulterer" (Liberatus, Breviar., xviij.).
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici , Gratian's Decretum , Pars I., Dist. LXXV., C. ij.
Canon XXVI.
Forasmuch as we have heard that in certain churches the bishops managed the church-business without stewards, it has seemed good that every church having a bishop shall have also a steward from among its own clergy, who shall manage the church business under the sanction of his own bishop; that so the administration of the church may not be without a witness; and that thus the goods of the church may not be squandered, nor reproach be brought upon the priesthood; and if he [i.e., the Bishop] will not do this, he shall be subjected to the divine canons.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon XXVI.
The (Economus in all churches must be chosen from the clergy. And the bishop who neglects to do this is not without blame.
Bright.
As the stream of offerings became fuller, the work of dispensing them became more complex, until the archdeacons could no longer find time for it, and it was committed to a special officer called "oeconomus" or steward (Bingham, iii, 12, 1; Transl. of Fleury, iii., 120). So the Council of Gangra, in the middle of the fourth century, forbids the church offerings to be disposed of without consent of the bishop or of the person appointed, eij oikonomian eupoiiaj (canon viij.); and St Basil mentions the oeconomi of his own church (Epist., xxiij. 1), and the " tamiai of the sacred goods" of his brother's at Nyssa ( ib. , 225). And although Gregory Nazianzen took credit to himself for declining to appoint a "stranger" to make an estimate of the property which of right belonged to the church of Constantinople, and in fact, with a strange confusion between personal and official obligations, gave the go-by to the whole question (Carm. de Vita sua, 1479 ff.), his successor, Nectarius, being a man of business, took care to appoint a "church-steward"; and Chrysostom, on coming to the see, examined his accounts, and found much superfluous expenditure (Palladius, Dial, p. 19). Theophilus of Alexandria compelled two of the Tall Brothers to undertake the oikonomia of the Alexandrian church (Soc., vi. 7); and in one of his extant directions observes that the clergy of Lyco wish for another "oeconomus," and that the bishop has consented, in order that the church-funds may be properly spent (Mansi, iii., 1257). At Hippo St. Augustine had a "praepositus domus" who acted as Church-steward (Possidius, Vit. August., xxiv.). Isidore of Pelusium denounces Martinianus as a fraudulent "oeconomus," and requests Cyril to appoint an upright one (Epist. ii., 127), and in another letter urges him to put a stop to the dishonest greed of those who acted as stewards of the same church ( ib. , v. 79). The records of the Council of Ephesus mention the "oeconomus" of Constantinople, the "oeconomus" of Ephesus (Mansi, iv., 1228-1398), and, the "oeconomus" of Philadelphia. According to an extant letter of Cyril, the "oeconomi" of Perrha in Syria were mistrusted by the clergy, who wished to get rid of them "and appoint others by their own authority" ( ib. , vii., 321). Ibas of Edessa had been complained of for his administration of church property; he was accused, e.g. , of secreting a jewelled chalice, and bestowing the church revenues, and gold and silver crosses, on his brother and cousins; he ultimately undertook to appoint "oeconomi" after the model of Antioch (Mansi, vii., 201). Proterius, afterwards patriarch of Alexandria and a martyr for Chalcedonian orthodoxy, was "oeconomus" under Dioscorus ( ib. , iv., 1017), as was John Talaia, a man accused of bribery, under his successor (Evag., iii., 12). There may have been many cases in which there was no "oeconomus," or in which the management was in the hands of private agents of the bishop, in whom the Church could put no confidence; and the Council, having alluded to the office of "oeconomus" in canons ij. and xxv., now observes that some bishops had been managing their church property without "oeconomi," and thereupon resolves "that every church which has a bishop shall also have an oeconomus" from among its own clergy, to administer the property of the church under the direction of its own bishop; so that the administration of the church property may not be unattested, and thereby waste ensue, and the episcopate incur reproach." Any bishop who should neglect to appoint such an officer should be punishable under "the divine" (or sacred) "canons."
Nearly three years after the Council, Leo saw reason for requesting Marcian not to allow civil judges, "novo exemplo," to audit the accounts of "the oeconomi of the church of Constantinople," which ought, "secundumtraditum morem," to be examined by the bishop alone (Epist. cxxxvij. 2). In after days the "great steward" of St. Sophia was always a deacon; he was a conspicuous figure at the Patriarch's celebrations, standing on the right of the altar, vested in alb and stole, and holding the sacred fan ( ripidion ); his duty was to enter all incomings and outgoings of the church's revenue in a charterlary, and exhibit it quarterly, or half yearly, to the patriarchs; and he governed the church during a vacancy of the see (Eucholog., pp. 268, 275). In the West, Isidore of Seville describes the duties of the "oeconomus"; he has to see to the repair and building of churches, the care of church lands, the cultivation of vineyards, the payment of clerical stipends, of doles to the widows and the poor, and of food and clothing to church servants, and even the carrying on of church law suits,-all "cure jussu et arbitrio sui episcopi" (Ep. to Leudefred, Op. ii., 520); and before Isidore's death the IV Council of Toledo refers to this canon, and orders the bishops to appoint "from their own clergy those whom the Greeks call oeconomi, hoc est, qui vici episcoporum res ecclesiasticas tractant (canon xlviij., Mansi, x, 631). There was an officer named "oeconomus" in the old Irish monasteries; see Reeves' edition of Adamnan, p. 47.
This Canon is found twice in the Corpus Juris Canonici , Gratian's Decretum , Pars II., Causa XVI., Q. VII, Canon xxi., and again in Pars I., Dist. LXXXIX., c. iv.
Canon XXVII.
The holy Synod has decreed that those who forcibly carry off women under pretence of marriage, and the alders or abettors of such ravishers, shall be degraded if clergymen, and if laymen be anathematized.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon XXVII.
If a clergyman elope with a woman, let him be expelled from the Church. If a layman, let him be anathema. The same shall be the lot of any that assist him.
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici , Gratian's Decretum , Pars II., Causa XXXVI., Q. II., canon j.
In many old collections this is the last canon of this Council, e.g. , Dionysius Exiguus, Isidore, the Prisca , the Greek by John of Antioch, and the Arabic by Joseph Aegyptius. The reader familiar with the subject will have but little difficulty in explaining to his own satisfaction the omission of canon xxviij. in these instances.
Canon XXVIII.
Following in all things the decisions of the holy Fathers, and acknowledging the canon, which has been just read, of the One Hundred and Fifty Bishops beloved-of-God (who assembled in the imperial city of Constantinople, which is New Rome, in the time of the Emperor Theodosius of happy memory), we also do enact and decree the same things concerning the privileges of the most holy Church of Constantinople, which is New Rome. For the Fathers rightly granted privileges to the throne of old Rome, because it was the royal city. And the One Hundred and Fifty most religious Bishops, actuated by the same consideration, gave equal privileges ( isa presbeia ) to the most holy throne of New Rome, justly judging that the city which is honoured with the Sovereignty and the Senate, and enjoys equal privileges with the old imperial Rome, should in ecclesiastical matters also be magnified as she is, and rank next after her; so that, in the Pontic, the Asian, and the Thracian dioceses, the metropolitans only and such bishops also of the Dioceses aforesaid as are among the barbarians, should be ordained by the aforesaid most holy throne of the most holy Church of Constantinople; every metropolitan of the aforesaid dioceses, together with the bishops of his province, ordaining his own provincial bishops, as has been declared by the divine canons; but that, as has been above said, the metropolitans of the aforesaid Dioceses should be ordained by the archbishop of Constantinople, after the proper elections have been held according to custom and have been reported to him.
Note.
Ancient Epitome of Canon XXVIII.