Правило 3 Василия Великого
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A deacon who has committed adultery after accepting the diaconate, although he should be expelled from the deaconship, but, after being demoted to the place of the laity, should not be excommunicated from communion: for the ancient rule is that those expelled from the sacred degree should be subjected to this only form of punishment, in which, as it seems to me, the ancients followed this law: do not avenge twice for one (Nahum. 1:9). There is also another reason for this: for those in the rank of laity, having been cast out from the place of the faithful, are again received back to the place from which they fell. And the deacon is subjected to the punishment of eruption, which lasts forever. And so they limited themselves to this single punishment, since the diaconate would not be returned to him. So according to the regulations. In general, the truest healing is removal from sin, so that he who has rejected grace, for the sake of the pleasure of the flesh, gives us perfect proof of his healing, even with contrition of heart, and with all enslavement of the flesh to abstinence, he will retreat from the pleasures by which he was seduced.
And so it is fitting for us to know both of these things, both those that belong to the perfection of repentance and those that are accepted into custom: for those who have not achieved the perfection of repentance, to follow the faithful rule.
(Ap. 25; Trul. 4, 21, 44; IV Ecum. 15, 16; Ankyr. 19; Carth. 27; Basil Vel. 6, 18, 32, 44, 51, 60, 69, 70).
With this rule, Basil the Great repeats the prescription of 25 Ap. rules according to which a clergyman caught in fornication must be cast out, i.e. deprived of holy dignity, but, however, he should not be excommunicated from church unity; to justify this prescription, he cites the same place from Holy Scripture (Nahum. 1:9), which was also cited in the said Apostolic Rule. Based on this rule, St. Basil, a difference in punishments for clergy and laity was established in the Orthodox Church, which we have already discussed (vol. I, p. 55).
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