Каноническое послание архиепископа Григория, Неокесарийского Правило 1 (1–2)

1. Food does not burden us, most sacred Pope 126, although the captives ate what was offered to them from those who owned them, especially when everyone agrees that the barbarians who came to our countries did not sacrifice to idols. The apostle says: food is for the belly, and the belly is for food; but God will destroy both (1 Cor. 6:13). And the Savior: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth defiles a person (Matthew 15:11). 2. It is not hard that captive wives were corrupted by barbarians who outraged their bodies. However, even before, the life of some of them was observed, as if they were following the trail of the fornicators, according to the saying of Scripture: it is obvious that her fornicating disposition is suspicious even during captivity, and such should not soon be allowed to communicate in prayers. If someone who lived in perfect chastity, and who showed her previous life pure and free from all suspicion, was now subjected to reproach, through violence and coercion: then in this case we have in the book of Deuteronomy an example of a maiden whom a man found in the field, and having raped him, slept with her: to the maiden, says the law, you shall do nothing: for the virgin shall have no sin. mortal, as if someone stood up against his neighbor and killed his soul, this is the case... cry out to the damsel, and do not help her (Deut. 22:26, 27). Such are the cases 127. (Ap. 62, 67; I Om. 11; IV Om. 27; Ankyr. 4, 5; Petra Alex. 14; Basil the Great. 49). This rule, together with the following nine rules, constitutes the canonical epistle of Gregory, addressed to a certain bishop of Pontus, whom Gregory calls ιερέ πάπα, as, however, bishops were generally called among the people at that time, and the epistle was intended for all the bishops of Pontus. It (the message) concerns those who, during the invasions of barbarians (for example, Goths, etc.) ate from idol offerings (ειδωλόθυτα) and committed other sins, as indicated in the title of the message itself (περί των εν τη επιδρομή των βαρβάρων είδωλοθυτα φαγόντων, ή και ετέρα τίνα πλημμελησάντων), and prescribes appropriate punishments in 10 separate rules. This rule speaks first about those Christian captives who ate from the barbarians, and then about the captive women whose bodies the barbarians violated. According to the two subjects about which this rule speaks, it is divided in the Book of Rules, as well as in the Pidalion, into two rules. On the first question, the Council of Ancyra, with its rules 4 and 5, subjects Christians to penance who have partaken of offerings to idols, even if they did so under the compulsion of their tormentors. On this issue, Saint Gregory, taking into account that the Christians who ate with the barbarians ate only to satisfy hunger and not from offerings to idols, does not consider them to have sinned and does not impose any penance on them, referring to the Holy Scriptures, and especially to the words of the Savior, that what does not enter into the mouth defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth does defile a person. As for the wives captured by the barbarians, defiled by fornication, the Holy Father, in the second half of this rule (or in the 2nd rule according to the edition of the Book of Rules), distinguishes between women whose life was previously pure and free from any suspicion, and only now they were raped by the barbarians, from women of easy virtue, whose life was previously shameful, and does not consider the former guilty and does not impose any punishment on them penance, but about the second he says that they “not soon” should be allowed to communicate in prayers, and, therefore, they should undergo appropriate penance. The injunction that a woman defiled by fornication under duress is not subject to punishment is also found in the 49th rule of Basil the Great. Book right: The letter was written to the Archbishop of Alexandria, who, according to ancient custom, is also called pope. Note The author's numbering of the rules is according to the Athenian Syntagma, and in brackets and where it follows - on the left side the numbering of the Book of Rules is indicated. Ed. You might be interested in: