Canones Poenitentiales [Incertus]

Penitential Canons. Concerning a Drunken Bishop, and concerning a Priest and a Deacon. If any bishop, or any ordained person, has a habitual vice of drunkenness: let him either desist, or be deposed. If a monk vomits due to drunkenness, let him do penance for twenty days. If a priest or a deacon vomits due to drunkenness, let him do penance for forty days, abstaining for six days let him do penance. If, however, it is due to infirmity, or because he has abstained for a long time, and it is not his custom to drink or eat much, or from joy on the Nativity of the Lord, or at Easter, or for the commemoration of some saint, and then he has taken no more than what was decreed by the elders, it does not harm. If a bishop has ordered it, it does not harm him, unless he himself does likewise. If a lay faithful person vomits due to drunkenness, let him do penance for fifteen days. Whoever, being drunk contrary to the Lord's prohibition, if he has had a vomit of surfeit, let him do penance for six days on water, or twenty days without fat. If a lay person, without wine, through malice makes another drunk, let him do penance for forty days. Whoever vomits due to surfeit: in penance, as for sacrifice, seven days. If due to infirmity, it is without cause. If any bishop has committed homicide, let him do penance for fifteen years and be deposed, and for all the days of his life, let him end his life in pilgrimage. A priest, for twelve years let him do penance, for three of these on bread and water let him do penance and be deposed. A deacon, for ten, for three of these on bread and water.

A cleric or layperson shall do penance for seven years on bread and water, and shall not presume to ascend to the honor of the priesthood. If, however, he performs the penance well, let him be reconciled. Likewise, if anyone has consented to the commission of a homicide, and it was carried out, let him do penance for seven years, three of them on bread and water. If, however, he willed it but was unable to carry it out, let him do penance for three years. If anyone has committed homicide unintentionally, let him do penance for five years, three of these on bread and water. If anyone has killed a bishop or a presbyter, it is to be left to the king to judge. He who kills a monk or a cleric is subject to the judgment of the bishop. Let him lay down his arms and serve God, or do penance for twelve years. If anyone has killed a man in anger, let him do penance for one year. He who did so for vengeance of a father or brother, let him do penance for three years. If he has made composition with the parents, let it be for half the time. If any layperson has killed another out of hatred, if he is unwilling to lay down his arms, let him do penance for seven years without meat and wine. If anyone has killed a man in battle with the king, let him do penance for forty days. If a mother has killed her own son, let her do penance for fifteen years, and never receive communion except on the Lord's Day. If a poor woman has killed her son, let her do penance for seven years. If anyone has struck someone in anger and drawn blood, or has injured him, let him pay for his work and seek a physician. And if he is a layperson, let him do penance for forty days on bread and water. If a cleric, for two Lents. If a deacon, for seven months. If a presbyter, for one full year. Children who strike one another shall do penance for seven days.

If, however, they are adolescents, forty days. If anyone has crushed his own infant, let him do penance for three years, one of these on bread and water, and let him abstain from lust during the time of penance. If anyone has procured the abortion of a woman’s conception, let him do penance for two years, one on bread and water. If a woman has voluntarily committed abortion, let her do penance for three years. If unwillingly, three Lents. Women who fornicate and kill their own offspring, and those who act so as to expel conceptions, the ancients decreed penance until the end of life; now, however, it has been more humanely determined that they do penance for years. A woman who conceives and kills her son in the womb, before forty days let her do penance for one year. If after forty days, she must do penance as for homicide. A father or mother who kills his or her son before baptism, let them do penance for nine years, but with counsel. Those whose small children die through negligence without baptism, on bread and water for three years. If an infant, a sick person, or a pagan commended to a presbyter dies without baptism, the presbyter is to be deposed. And if it was the negligence of the parents, let them do penance for one year. If anyone voluntarily cuts off any limb from himself, let him do penance, one year on bread and water. Eunuchs, if they have been made so by others, may be promoted in the clergy; if, however, they have castrated themselves, let them by no means be promoted. And if a presbyter has castrated himself, let him be deposed. If anyone provides leadership to barbarians, let him do penance for fourteen years. If, however, he has not caused a slaughter of Christians; but if he has, having laid down arms, let him live dead to the world, alive to God until death.

If anyone has fornicated as the Sodomites did, let a bishop do penance for fifteen years, five of these on bread and water, and let him be deposed from all office: let him end the days of his life in pilgrimage. If, however, he is an old man or sick, let him do penance confined in prison, in darkness, for all the days of his life. Let a priest do penance for twelve years, two of these on bread and water, and let him be deposed. Let a deacon and a monk do penance for seven years, two of these on bread and water, and let them be deposed. Let them end their lives in pilgrimage. Let a cleric and a layman do penance for years, one of these on bread and water. Those written above shall never sleep with others, and shall never presume to approach the grade of priesthood. During the years of their penance, let them abstain from wine and meat. Except if infirmity occurs, let it be relaxed until recovery. Let them merit communion at the end of life. If, however, they have performed penance well, let them be reconciled and admitted to communion. If anyone has fornicated with a woman consecrated to God, let a bishop do penance for fifteen years, five of these on bread and water, and let him be deposed, and never return to the honor of the priesthood. Let a priest do penance for twelve years, three of these on bread and water, and let him be deposed. Let a deacon and a monk do penance for seven years, three of these on bread and water, and let them never approach the honor of the priesthood. After the penance is performed, let them be reconciled to communion. If anyone has fornicated with his mother, let him do penance for twelve years, and let him never communicate, except only on the Lord’s days.

If anyone has fornicated with another man’s wife, a bishop shall do penance for twelve years, three of these on bread and water. Those written above shall be deprived of communion: after the penance is performed, they shall be reconciled. For they shall never presume to approach the grades of the priesthood. If anyone has fornicated with a widow or another man’s betrothed, a bishop shall do penance for twelve years, three of these on bread and water: and let him be deposed, both the bishop and the presbyter. A cleric and a layman shall do penance for five years, of these on bread and water, and shall be deprived of communion and of holy order. If anyone has fornicated with a kinswoman, or a sister, or a mother, a bishop shall do penance for fifteen years; a presbyter for twelve years, a deacon and a monk for ten, a cleric and a layman for seven; all these on bread and water, and shall be deprived of communion and of holy order. If anyone has fornicated with a woman whom the Lord has left as a wife, a bishop shall do penance for twelve years, three on bread and water, and shall be deprived of communion. A presbyter for twelve, three of these on bread and water. A deacon and a monk shall do penance for seven years, three of these on bread and water. A cleric and a layman for five; two of these on bread and water, and shall be deprived of the honor of the priesthood. If anyone has fornicated with a quadruped, a bishop shall do penance for twelve years, three of these on bread and water, and shall be deposed. A presbyter for years, three of these on bread and water, and shall be deposed. A deacon and a monk for seven; three of these on bread and water, and shall be deposed. A cleric and a layman for three, one of these on bread and water, and shall not approach the grade of the priesthood.

If anyone, desiring to fornicate, has been unable to do so, or the woman has not permitted it, a bishop shall do penance for seven years; a presbyter for five; a deacon and a monk for three, one of these on bread and water. A cleric and a layperson shall do penance for two years. If anyone has fornicated by himself through any means, a bishop shall do penance for [number missing] years, one of these on bread and water. A deacon and a monk for one year; a presbyter for two, half of these on bread and water. A cleric and a layperson for half a year. And if it happens to them again and again, they shall be deprived of communion for one year. Whoever has had intercourse with animals shall do penance for [number missing] years. A monk committing fornication shall do penance for seven years. If in the thighs, for three years, which they perform. If a small child, oppressed, suffers such a thing, he shall do penance for forty days. Or he shall be chastised by psalms or by continence. If anyone has found his own wife adulterous and does not wish to dismiss her but to keep her in marriage, he shall do penance for two years, and he shall set free a slave or a freeborn maidservant on his behalf. And for another two years he shall give alms. And after seven years, by the judgment of a priest, he shall receive communion. Or as long as she does penance, he shall abstain from marriage.

Of Perjury. If anyone commits perjury, a bishop shall do penance for twelve years, three of these on bread and water. A presbyter for ten, with three of these on bread and water, and he shall be deposed until he completes the penance and is reconciled. A cleric for five years, two of these on bread and water. A layman for three years, one of these on bread and water. If anyone, compelled by any necessity or unknowingly, has sworn falsely, he shall do penance for three years, one of these on bread and water. If a layman commits perjury out of greed, he shall sell all his goods and give them to the poor, and, having entered a monastery, shall serve God there until death. If, due to greed, he incurs danger of soul or death, he shall do penance for four years, unarmed and in exile, on bread and water, and shall abstain from meat and wine. If anyone has abducted a virgin, he shall do penance for three years, one of these on bread and water. If anyone, in the manner of sinners, has been joined in marriage with a blood relative before the twentieth year of his age, he shall do penance for years; only after the prescribed prayers have been completed shall he begin to receive communion. After the twentieth year, however, he shall be received to communion with an offering. Their life during the time of penance shall also be examined. And thus he shall obtain this leniency. But if those who have abused this crime, having a wife after twenty years, have incurred this crime, they shall do penance for fifteen years and one. And after the penance has been performed, they shall be admitted to the communion of prayers. And thus after another five years they shall be received to full communion with an offering.

If any, having wives and after the fiftieth year of their age, have fallen into this, they should merit communion only at the end of their life. If a woman has married two brothers, she ought to be cast out until the day of death, but for the sake of humanity she is to be reconciled to communion at the end. Yet so that if she should happen to recover her health, with the marriage dissolved, she is to be admitted to penance. But if the woman bound by such a union has died, the penance for the one remaining will be different. Both the woman and the man must hold to this sentence. If a Gentile has dismissed his Gentile wife, it will be in his power after baptism to have her or not to have her. Similarly, if one is baptized and the other is a Gentile. If a man's wife is unfaithful or a Gentile, and he cannot convert her, let him dismiss her. A woman must abstain from her husband for three months when she has conceived, and before she gives birth. After childbirth, however, if one has married within forty days, let him do penance for twenty days. If one has married on the Lord's day, let him do penance for four days. If a man's wife has departed from him and has returned again, let him receive her. And let her do penance for one year. Similarly, let the man also do penance, if he himself has married another. If a man is sterile, both he and she are to be continent. If a woman fornicates with a woman, let her do penance for three years with one penance. Widows and maidens are to do a greater penance if they have perpetrated this sin.

A woman who has had a husband, if she has committed fornication, and the one who has placed his seed in her, shall do penance for seven years. This is a very great evil: otherwise it has been judged differently by him, so that both shall do penance until the end of their life. Or twelve years, or seven for one who has fornicated often: the first canon judged for years, the second canon for seven; but on account of the weakness of the man, or through a council, they said that he should do penance for either three or seven years. If anyone has fornicated with a natural brother through carnal commingling, he shall do penance for fifteen years and abstain from all meat. If a mother has been involved in fornication with her young son, she shall do penance for three years, abstaining from meat, and fast one day each week until evening. One who is tempted to fornication by a thought shall do penance until the thought is overcome. One who loves a woman shall seek pardon from God in his mind. If he has spoken of both love and friendship, but it has not been accepted by her, he shall do penance for seven days. For a whole year and six months, if he has wished to fornicate in this way and could not. If any layman has secretly taken a nun from a monastery, he shall either enter the monastery to serve God, or undergo human servitude. Stolen or seized Church money shall be repaid fourfold; for seculars, double. One who has committed theft often shall do penance for seven years, or as the priest judges. The same applies according to what compensation ought to be made to those whom he has harmed.

And he who committed theft, if led to penance, should always be reconciled with the one he offended, and make restitution according to the harm he caused him, and this will greatly shorten his penance. But if he is unwilling, or cannot do penance for the appointed time in every respect, the one who stole is admonished. Let him also give to the poor. One who swears on a consecrated [host] shall do penance for three years, without fat, and then receive communion. If anyone has been ordained by heretics, he must be ordained again, if he is irreproachable; he ought to be deposed. If anyone has passed from the Catholic Church to heresy, and later has returned, he cannot be ordained except after long penance, and for a great necessity. Pope Innocent asserts that, by the authority of the canons, such a one is not permitted to become a cleric even after penance. Whoever celebrates Easter with the Jews on the fourteenth moon shall be excommunicated from the whole Church unless he does penance before death. If he has prayed with him as with a Catholic cleric, let him do penance for a week. But if he has been negligent, let him do penance for forty days. If anyone, for the first time, has wished to encourage their heresy, and has not done penance, he likewise shall be excommunicated, the Lord saying: He who is not with me is against me. If anyone has been baptized by a heretic who does not rightly believe in the Trinity, let him be baptized again. If anyone has given or received communion from the hand of a heretic, and does not know that the Catholic Church forbids it, and later has understood, let him do penance for a full year.

If he knows and neglects it, and afterwards does penance, let him do penance for years. Others judge seven, and more leniently five years. If anyone allows a heretic to celebrate his mass in a Catholic church, and does not know, let him do penance for forty days. If, however, out of reverence for him, let him do penance for one year. If for the condemnation of the Catholic Church, let him be cast out of the Church like a heretic, unless he does penance. If he has withdrawn from the Catholic Church into a gathering of heretics, and has persuaded others, let him do penance for twelve years: four years outside the Church, and seven among the hearers, and two outside communion. Concerning these, it is said in the Synod: for a year let them receive communion or offering. If a bishop or abbot orders his monk to sing mass for dead heretics, it is not expedient for him to obey. If it happens to a priest, and he has sung mass there, and has named the dead, and has named heretics together with Catholics, after the mass, let him who understood fast for a week. If he has done it frequently, let him do penance for a whole year. If anyone here has ordered a mass for the death of a heretic, and out of his religion has made relics of him, because he has fasted much, and afterwards has understood, has done penance, he ought to burn the relics with fire, and do penance for one year. If he knows and neglects it, moved by penance, let him do penance for forty years.

If anyone departs from the faith of God without any necessity, and afterwards receives penance with his whole heart, let him do penance for three years outside the Church, and for one year within the Church among the penitents; and for two more years outside communion, one among the hearers according to the Council of Nicaea. Whoever commits perjury in the Church shall do penance for eleven years; but whoever is compelled by necessity to do something, one year. Whoever swears by the hand of a man, it is nothing. But if he has sworn by the hand of a bishop or a presbyter or a deacon, or on an altar, or on a consecrated cross, let him do penance for one year; for perjurers, seven years. Concerning those who have committed many evils, that is, homicide, adultery with a woman and sin... and theft, let them go into a monastery and do penance until death. Things seized in another province which is overcome by an enemy, that is, with another king defeated, a third part of it shall be given to the Church, or to the poor. And penance shall be performed for forty days, because it was the king's command. Whoever has drunk blood or semen shall do penance for three years. Evil thoughts are granted indulgence if they are not carried out in deed, nor consented to. Twelve three-day periods are to be considered equivalent to one year. Theodore approved. The faint-hearted who eat unclean flesh or carrion torn by beasts shall do penance for forty days. For if necessity compels, it is nothing. And whoever out of necessity eats an animal that seems unclean, whether bird or beast, it does no harm.

If a flea falls into a liquid, let it be taken out, and if it is alive, let it be sprinkled with holy water. But if it is dead, let all the liquid be thrown out. Let it not be given to a man, and let the vessel be cleansed. Similarly, that liquid food in which a mouse or a weasel dies immersed, let it be purified and sprinkled with holy water, and let it be taken if there is necessity. If birds drop their dung into any liquid, let the dung be removed from it and the water sanctified, and the food will be clean. Unknowingly swallowing blood with saliva is not a sin. Whoever bleeds, in whatever manner, will be polluted. Nothing is unclean if he knows it: let penance be given according to the degree of pollution. Concerning priests who have lust. If a priest is defiled by touching and kissing a woman, let him do penance for forty days. And if he has kissed a woman out of desire, let him do penance for twenty days. If he has emitted seed through thought, let him fast for a week; with an irritating hand, for eleven days, or a year. If he is polluted, let him fast for weeks. If any priest has denied penance by his conduct, he will be guilty for his own soul, because the Lord says: "At whatever hour the sinner turns back, he will live, and he will not die." For true confession can be at the last moment: because our Lord is the inspector not only of time, but also of the heart. Thus the thief, in the last hour, by confession in one moment, merited to be in paradise. If a monk commits fornication with a nun, let him do penance for seven years.

Whoever has emitted seed through violent thought shall do penance for three days. If it happens to him a second time, he shall do penance for forty days, or for a year. If more instances are added, let him fast for either one year or three Lents. Whoever defiles himself shall do penance for one hundred and forty days. If he is a boy, he shall be beaten for twenty days. If he is in holy orders, he shall do penance for three Lents or one year, if he has repeated the act. If anyone has renounced the world and afterwards returned to the world and its habit, if he is a monk and after this has performed penance, he shall do penance for years. If he has been proven in all penance, in tears, in prayers, a compassionate bishop may make him a cleric. If he was not a monk when he left the Church, he shall do penance for seven years. If any bishop or presbyter or deacon commits fornication, they must be degraded and do penance. If anyone, after having vowed himself, has taken up a secular habit, he ought by no means to approach any order. If any presbyter or deacon has married a foreign wife, he shall be deposed in the conscience of the people. If he has committed adultery with her, and it has come to the conscience of the people, he shall be cast out of the Church and do penance among the laity for as long as he lives. If anyone has had concubines, he ought not to be ordained. Whoever, whether presbyter in his own province or in another, and wherever he may be found, has refused to baptize a sick person commended to him, or if the person dies on a journey without baptism, he shall be deposed.

Similarly, whoever kills a man or commits fornication shall be deposed. If someone has married a widow, he cannot be ordained, just like a bigamist. Whoever baptizes rashly, not being ordained, is to be cast out from the Church and never ordained. Those who were baptized by such a person, if unaware, do not need penance on that account, except that according to the canons they cannot be ordained unless great necessity compels it. Those who have been rebaptized—as if they crucify Christ a second time—shall do penance for seven years, fasting on the fourth and sixth days during the three Lents. If it was done for some vice, or if he thought it licit for the sake of purity, he shall do penance for three years. Whoever works on the Lord's Day shall do penance for seven days or be flogged. If someone fasts on the Lord's Day through negligence, he shall fast for the whole week. And if a second time, he shall do penance for twenty days. If a fifth Lord's Day, he shall do penance for forty days. If someone fasts on the Lord's Day out of condemnation, he shall be abominated like a Jew by the whole Catholic Church. If he has despised and indicated the fast of the Church, and acted against the decrees of the elders during the Lents, he shall do penance for forty days. If within Lent, he shall do penance for one year. If he has done it frequently and made it a habit, he shall be cast out from the Church, the Lord saying: "Whoever has scandalized one of these little ones who believe in me," etc.

Concerning the Communion of the Eucharist, as a sacrifice. Penitents, according to the canons, ought not to communicate before the completion of their penance. To these, out of mercy, we grant permission for a year or six months. The measure is to be tempered according to the degree of fault, whether quickly or slowly. Whoever receives the sacrifice after food shall do penance for seven days. Every sacrifice corrupted by foul decay is to be burned with fire. If by chance beasts or birds devour it, he shall fast for three weeks. If through negligence, for three Lents. If a married man, or a woman having a vow of virginity, enters into marriage, he shall not dismiss that one, but shall do penance for three years. A woman is not permitted to make a vow without the consent of her husband: but if she wishes, she can be dismissed by the judgment of a priest. A woman who joins herself as an adulteress in the manner of fornication shall do penance either for seven or for years, just as a fornicator. Likewise she who mixes her seed in food, so that the same may receive more love. A wife who has tasted her husband's blood as a remedy shall do penance for eighteen days. Women during their menstrual time shall not enter the church, nor communicate, neither laywomen nor nuns; and if they have taken it, they shall fast for three weeks. Similarly, she who enters the church before the cleansing of blood after childbirth shall do penance for forty days. Whoever marries during these times shall do penance for thirty days. Whoever marries on the Lord's day shall do penance for three days. If a man marries his own wife from behind, he shall do penance for forty days.

If she marries from behind, she ought to do penance as one who has had intercourse with animals. If anyone commits a capital theft, that is, of a quadruped, or breaks into a house, let him do penance for five years, three of these