Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon VI.
In Martyries and Monasteries ordinations are strictly forbidden. Should any one be ordained therein, his ordination shall be reputed of no effect.
Van Espen.
The wording of the canon seems to intimatethat the synod of Chalcedon held ordinations of this sort to be not only illicit but also invalid, irritis and cassis. Nor is this to be wondered at, if we take into account the pristine and ancient discipline of the church and the opinion of many of the Scholastics (Morinus, De SS. Ordinat., Parte III., Exercit. V., cap
Hefele.
It is clear that our canon forbids the so-called absolute ordinations, and requires that every cleric must at the time of his ordination be designated to a definite church. The only titulus which is here recognized is that which was later known as titulus beneficii. As various kinds of this title we find here (a) the appointment to a church in the city; (b) to a village church; (c) that to the chapel of a martyr; (d) the appointment as chaplain of a monastery. For the right understanding of the last point, it must be remembered thatthe earliest monks were in no wise clerics, butthat soon the custom was introduced in every larger convent, of having at least one monk ordained presbyter, that he might provide for divine service in the monastery.
Similar prohibitions of ordinationes absolutoe were also put forth in after times.
According to existing law, absolute ordinations, as is well known, are still illicitoe, but yet validoe, and even the Council of Chalcedon has not declared them to be properly invalidoe,but only as without effect (by permanent suspension). Cf Kober, Suspension, S. 220, and Hergenrother, Photius, etc., Bd. ii., S. 324.
Bright.
By the word marturi/w ("martyry") is meant a church or chapel raised over a martyr's grave. So the Laodicene Council forbids Churchmen to visit the "martyries of heretics" (can. ix.). So Gregory of Nyssa speaks of "the martyry" of the Holy Martyrs (Op. ii., 212); Chrysostom of a "martyry," and Palladius of "martyries" near Antioch (In Act. Apost. Hom., xxxviii. 5; Dial. , p. 17), and Palladius of "the martyry of St. John" at Constantinople ( Dial. , p. 25). See Socrates, iv. 18, 23, on the "martyry" of St. Thomas at Edessa, and that of SS. Peter and Paul at Rome; and vi. 6, on the "martyry" of St. Euphenia at Chalcedon in which the Council actually met. In the distinct sense of a visible testimony, the word was applied to the church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem (Eusebius, Vit. Con., iii. 40, iv. 40; Mansi, vi. 564; Cyril, Catech., xiv. 3), and to the Holy Sepulchre itself (Vit. Con., iii. 28), Churches raised over martyrs' totals were called in the West "memorioe martyrum," see Cod. Afric., lxxxiii. (compare Augustine, De Cura pro Mortuis, VI.).
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici , Gratian's Decretum , Pars I., Dist. lxx., can. j.
Canon VII.
WE have decreed that those who have once been enrolled among the clergy, or have been made monks, shall accept neither a military charge nor any secular dignity; and if they shall presume to do so and not repent in such wise as to turn again to that which they had first chosen for the love of God, they shall be anathematized.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon VII.
If any cleric or monk arrogantly affects the military or any other dignity, let him be cursed.
Hefele.
Something similar was ordered by the lxxxiii. (lxxxii.) Apostolic Canon, only that it threatens the cleric who takes military service merely with deposition from his clerical office, while our canon subjects him to excommunication.The Greek commentators, Balsamon and Zonaras, think that our canon selects a more severe punishment, that of excommunication, because it has in view those clerics who have not merely taken military service, etc., but at the same time have laid aside their clerical dress and put on secular clothing.
Bright.
By stratei/an [which I have translated (or, as Canon Bright thinks, mistranslated) "military charge"], "militiam," is here meant, not military employment as such, but the public service in general. This use of the term is a relic and token of the military basis of the Roman monarchy. The court of the Imperator was called his camp, strato/pedon (Cod. Theod., tom. ii.,, p. 22), as in Constantine's letter's to John Archaph and the Council of Tyre (Athan., Apol. c. Ari., lxx. 86), and in the VII canon of Sardica, so Athanasius speaks of the "camp" of Constans (Apol. ad Constant, iv. ), and of that of Constantius at Milan (Hist. Ari., xxxvij.); so Hosius uses the same phrase in his letter to Constantius ( ib. xliv.); so the Semi-Arian bishops, when addressing Jovian (Soz., vi. 4); so Chrysostom in the reign of Theodosius I. (Hom. ad Pop. Antioch, vi. 2). Similarly, there were officers of the palace called Castrensians (Tertull. De Cor., 12), as being "milites alius generis-de imperatoria familia" (Gothofred, Cod. Theod., tom. ii., p. 526). So strateu/sqai is used for holding aplace at court, as in Soc., iv. 9; Soz., vi. 9, on Marcian's case, and a very clear passage in Soc., v. 25, where the verb is applied to an imperial secretary. It occurs in combination with stratei/a in a petition of an Alexandrian deacon named Theodore, which was read in the third session of Chalcedon: he says, " 'Estrateusa/men for about twenty-two years in the Schola of the magistrians" (under the Magister officionum, or chief magistrate of the palace), "but I disregarded stratei/aj tosou/ton xro/nau in order to enter the ministry" (Mansi, vi. 1008). See also Theodoret, Relig. Hist., xij., on the emperor's letter-carriers. In the same sense Honorius, by a law of408, forbids non-Catholics "intra palatium militare" (Cod Theod., xvi., 5, 42); and theVandal king Hunneric speaks of "domusnostrae militiae" (Vic 4 r Vitens, iv. 2).
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris
Canonici, Gratian's Decretum , Pars IL,Causa xx., Quaest. iii., Can. iij.
Canon VIII.
Let the clergy of the poor-houses, monasteries, and martyries remain under the authority of the bishops in every city according to the tradition of the holy Fathers; and let no one arrogantly cast off the rule of his own bishop; and if any shall contravene this canon in any way whatever, and will not be subject to their own bishop, if they be clergy, let them be subjected to canonical censure, and if they be monks or laymen, let them be excommunicated.