Van Espen.
The meaning of this canon seems to be that which Balsamon sets forth, to wit, that if a woman at the point of death or in extremis promises that if she gets better she will dissolve the marriage, or make a divorce, orabstain from the sacrilegious use of matrimony, then "she may be received to penance as an act of mercy"; and surely she is immediately absolved from the excommunication inflicted upon her when she was cast out and extruded from the Church. For it is certain that according to the discipline of the Fathers he was thought to be loosed from excommunication whoever was admitted to penance, and it is of this that the canon speaks; but he did not obtain perfect reconciliation until his penance was done.
To this performance of penance this woman was to be admitted if she got well and dissolved the marriage according to her promise made when she was in peril of death, as the Greek commentators note; and this too isthe sense given by Isidore.
Canon III.
Concerning those who fall into many marriages, the appointed time of penance is well known; but their manner of living and faith shortens the time.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon III.
The time of polygamists is well known.A zeal for penance may shorten it.
Hefele.
As the Greek commentators have remarked, this canon speaks of those who have been married more than twice. It is not known what were the ancient ordinances of penitence which the synod here refers to. In later times digamists were condemned to one year's penance, and trigamists from two to five years. St. Basil places the trigamists for three years among the "hearers," and then for some time among the consistentes.
Van Espen.
"The appointed time of penance is well known." These words Zonaras notes must refer to a custom, for, says he, "before this synod no canon is found which prescribes the duration of the penance of bigamists [i.e. digamists]." It is for this reason that St. Basil says (in Epist. ad Amphilogium, Can. 4) in speaking of the penance of trigamists "we have received this by custom and not by canon, but from the following of precedent," hence the Fathers received many things by tradition, and observed these as having the force of law.
From the last clause of this canon we see the mind of the Fathers of this synod, which agrees with that of Ancyra and Nice, that; with regard to the granting of indulgences, for in shortening the time of penance, attention must be paid to the penitence, and conversation, or "conversation and faith" of each one separately.
With this agrees Zonaras, whose remarks are worthy of consideration. On this whole subject of the commutation of the primitive penance and of the rise of the modern indulgences of the Roman Church Van Espen has written at length in his excursus De Indulgentiis ( Jure Eccles. , P. I. i., Tit. vij.) in which he assigns the change to the end of the XI century, and remarks that its introduction caused the "no small collapse of penitential discipline."
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici , Gratian, Decretum , Pars II., Causa xxxi., Quaest. i., c. viij. where for "conversio," ( a0nastrofh ;) is read "conversatio," and the Greek word is used in this sense in Polybius, and frequently so in the New Testament.
Canon IV.
IF any man lusting after a woman purposes to lie with her, and his design does not come to effect, it is evident that he has been saved by grace.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon IV.
Whoso lusteth but doth not accomplish his pleasure is preserved of God.
Hefele.
Instead of e0piqumhsai we must read, with Beveridge and Routh, who rely upon several mss., e0piqumh/saj . They also replace met au0th=j by au0th=| .
The meaning of the canon appears to me to be very obscure. Hefele refers to Van Espen and adopts his view, and Van Espen in turn has adopted Fleury's view and given him credit for it, referring to his Histoire Ecclesiastique, Lib. X., xvij. Zonaras' and Balsamon's notes are almost identical, I translate that of the latter in full.
Balsamon.
In sins, the Fathers say, there are four stages, the first-motion, the struggle, the consent, and the act: the first two of these are not subject to punishment, but in the two others the case is different. For neither is the first impression nor the struggle against it to be condemned, provided that when the reason receives the impression it struggles with it and rejects the thought. But the consent thereto is subject to condemnation and accusation, and the action to punishment. If therefore anyone is assailed by the lust for a woman, and is overcome so that he would perform the act with her, he has given consent, indeed, but to the work he has not come, that is, he has not performed the act, and it is manifest that the grace of God has preserved him; but he shall not go off with impunity. For the consent alone is worthy of punishment. And this is plain from canon lxx. of St. Basil, which says; "A deacon polluted in lips ( e0n xei/lesi )" or who has approached to the kiss of a woman "and confesses that he has so sinned, is to be interdicted his ministry," that is to say is to be prohibited its exercise for a time. "But he shall not be deemed unworthy to communicate in sacris with the deacons. The same is also the case with a presbyter. But if anyone shall go any further in sin than this, no matter what his grade, he shall be deposed." Some, however, interpret the pollution of the lips in another way; of this I shall speak in commenting on Canon lxx. of St. Basil.