simony is then committed when something is exacted before a benefice is bestowed, not however when the demand is made after its bestowal. This subterfuge had long ago been dissipated by St. Basil in a letter to the chorepiscopi of his diocese, among whom simony was rife: Putant se non delinquere quod non ante sed post ordinationem accipiunt. Accipere autem accipere est, quomodocumque fiat.[1]
Nor shall anyone presume to give, that is, he on whom a benefice or honor has been conferred, or whose church has been consecrated, etc. All of these prohibitions are, of course, based on the command of Christ to His Apostles: Gratis accepistis, gratis date.
CANON 3
Summary. Those excommunicated by one bishop may not be restored by others. Communication with one excommunicated entails the same censure.
Text. We absolutely forbid that those who have been excommunicated by their own bishops be received by others. He who shall dare communicate knowingly with one excommunicated before he is absolved by the one who excommunicated him, shall incur the same penalty.
Comment. The first part of this canon is an old ordinance and is met with again and again in the synods of this and preceding periods. The second part also is a reaffirmation of the ancient and traditional policy of the Church toward those who hold unlawful intercourse with one excommunicated, as is attested by Rom. 16:17; Tit. 3:10; II John 10:11; by the Synod of Antioch (341) in canons 1, 2, 4, and by numerous subsequent synodal decrees. In the early Church there was only one kind of excommunication properly so called, that known later as excommunicatio major.[2] It was the extreme ecclesiastical penalty for laymen; for guilty clerics the punishment was deposition, that is, reduction to the ranks of
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- ↑ Epist. LIII.
- ↑ Beside the complete exclusion from the Church by excommunication properly so called, there existed in early times a milder form of punishment, also known sometimes as excommunication, but really only a temporary suspension of communication between a bishop and his episcopal brethren, imposed by reason of an act deemed reprehensible and deserving of chastisement. Such bishops were not, properly speaking, excommunicated. It did not interfere with the government of their dioceses or with any of their episcopal duties. It simply meant that they were deprived for a specified period of time of the consolation of intercourse or communion with their colleagues. It was most frequently imposed by provincial synods on bishops who without good reason neglected to attend such synods. Thus the Fifth Synod of Carthage (401) in canon 10: If bishops for a good reason cannot attend the provincial synods, they must make that fact known in writing; nisi autem rationem impedimenti sui apud primatem suum reddiderint, ecclesiae suae communione detent esse contenti (c.10, D.XVIII); that of Arles (452) in canon 19: If a bishop neglects to attend a synod or leaves before it has
