Правило 80 Василия Великого

The fathers kept silent about polygamy, as it was a bestial matter and completely alien to the human race. To us this sin seems worse than fornication. Therefore, it would be prudent to subject such people to penance according to the rules, that is, let them mourn for one summer, and fall for three years, and then they can be accepted. (Ap. 48; Trul. 87; Neokes. 3; Basil Vel. 4, 9, 50, 77). The rule refers to polygamy (πολυγαμία) not only when someone has many wives at the same time, but also when someone marries many times. According to the rules, only the first marriage is considered holy and blessed by God; for the second marriage, a well-known person is subject to canonical punishment, but the third marriage is already considered uncleanness (ρυπάσματα) in the church and can only be tolerated, for it is still better than unbridled fornication (Basily the Great 4:50). Any further marriage is now called polygamy, and Basil the Great designates it as a bestial affair (κτηνώδες, belluinam rem), and not human, and considers it a sin greater than fornication. Polygamy, i.e. Any marriage after the third, Basil the Great punishes with four years of penance. However, one cannot think that these four years are the entire penance prescribed for polygamy. According to the interpretation of Zonara, of these four years, the first year sinners remained at the first stage of repentance (πρόσκλαυσις), in the remaining three years they had to stand with ύποπίπτοντες and, after praying for the catechumens, leave the church; having endured a four-year penance, only then could they be allowed to stand in the church together with the faithful (συνίστασθαι), that is, at the fourth stage of repentance, and at this stage they had to remain for as long as their bishop would please, taking into account their sincerity and zeal in repentance, and only after that could they be awarded Holy Communion 110 . You might be interested in: