Documenta

Decrees of Pope Eutychian, if there is no error in the name Eutychian itself, which are not found in earlier collections, taken by Labbeus from Gratian and Ivo and others. First. One must not obey a bishop who orders Mass to be sung for heretics. If any bishop or abbot orders his priest or monk to sing Masses for heretics, it is not permitted. For it is not expedient to obey them. Second. An abbess who presumes to veil a virgin or a widow shall be excommunicated. Nevertheless, we also find in certain places an unusual practice, full of folly and contrary to ecclesiastical authority, namely that some abbesses and certain nuns presume, contrary to law, to impose the veil on widows and virgin girls, and therefore some who are unjustly veiled think they can serve their carnal desires more freely and fulfill their own wishes. For this reason we decree that if an abbess or any nun, after this definition, rushes into such audacity as to presume to veil either a widow or a virgin girl, she shall be subjected to canonical judgment until she makes satisfaction.

Third. He who is unwilling to perform the penance for perjury shall be deprived of the fellowship of the faithful. It must also be preached that the faithful should beware of perjury and abstain from it utterly, knowing that this is a great crime, and is forbidden in the Law, in the Prophets, and in the Gospel (Leviticus 6; Joshua 9; Malachi 3; Matthew 5). Moreover, we have heard that some make light of this crime and impose a somewhat light penance for perjuries. Those who are able ought to impose such penance for perjury as for adultery, and for fornication, and for voluntary homicide, and for other criminal vices. But if anyone, having committed perjury or any criminal sin, fearing a long penance, should wish to come to confession, he is to be repelled from the Church, or from the communion and fellowship of the faithful, so that no one may eat with him, nor drink, nor pray, nor receive him into his house.

Fourth. One who maims limbs or burns houses without judicial authority shall be excommunicated. If anyone has committed mutilations of limbs and burnings of houses, or has ordered them to be done, or has consented to the one doing them, unless he makes amends for these things to each person legally and amicably before the bishop of the city and other citizens, he shall know himself to be deprived of the Church. But if after a second and third summons he does not amend all the things of which he is accused, he shall be separated from the whole fellowship of Christians as a pagan and a publican. Fifth. It shall be within the power of a believer, after baptism, to take back the wife whom he had previously dismissed. If anyone has dismissed a gentile wife before baptism, after baptism it shall be within his power to have her or not to have her. Sixth. A believer is not compelled to follow an unbeliever who departs. In like manner, if one of the married persons is baptized and the other is a gentile, and the gentile does not wish to follow, as the Apostle says: If the unbeliever departs, let him depart (1 Cor. 7).

Seventh. Synodal oath. The bishop, sitting in synod, after a suitable address, ought to summon into the midst seven or more of the more mature, more honest, and more truthful men from the people of his parish, as he sees fit; and, with the relics of the saints brought forth, he ought to bind each of them with such an oath: that from now on, whatever you know, or have heard, or will hereafter inquire into, which has been done or will be done against the will of God and right Christianity in this parish, if it occurs in your time, so far as it comes to your knowledge in any way, whether you know of it or it has been reported to you, that it is a synodal matter and pertains to the ministry of the bishop, that you, neither for love, nor for fear, nor for reward, nor for kinship, shall in any way conceal it from the bishop or his missus, whom he has ordered to inquire into this, whenever he questions you about it: so help you God, and these holy relics, and that oath which you have justly sworn concerning the synodal matter, that you will observe it as far as you know or have heard or will inquire from this day forward, so help you God.

Eighth. (From the decree which is of the sixteen books, book fourteen, chapter two.) And the evil of drunkenness is to be altogether avoided. We command that the great evil of drunkenness, from which all vices sprout, be guarded against by Christians in every way. But whoever is unwilling to avoid this, we have decreed that he is to be excommunicated, until a fitting correction. Ninth. (From the same, chapter three.) That bishops and ministers of God ought not to be burdened by drunkenness. Bishops and ministers of God ought not to give themselves over to excessive feasting and wine-drinking, but they should consider the saying of the Lord, which says: "Take heed, lest your hearts be weighed down by surfeit and drunkenness" (Luke 21; 1 Thess. 3). For let them take food and necessary sustenance in moderation, so that, according to the Apostle, they may be sober and ready for the service of God. Tenth. (From the same, chapter ten.) What persons of priests ought to take part in feasts.

We must take care that you abstain from drunkenness, and that you preach to the subject peoples that they abstain. And you are not to go into taverns for drinking or eating, nor are you to wander through houses or villages out of any curiosity, nor are you to hold feasts with women or with any impure persons, unless perhaps some head of a household has invited you to his home, and with his wife and with the people he wishes to rejoice with you in spiritual joy, and to receive the refreshment of your words, and to offer you carnal refreshment out of the duty of charity. For it is fitting that if ever any of the faithful refreshes you with carnal feasts, he be refreshed by you with spiritual feasts. THE MESOPOTAMIAN SYNOD OF ARCHELAUS. A divine and sacred particular synod, gathered in Mesopotamia by Archelaus, bishop of Carchar, and by the priest Diodorus, against the infernal Manes and the presbyter Diodonadenes: which, having refuted them in many ways, cast them out.