POENITENTIALE

• 401A

When anyone goes away to his penance, then let him stretch himself out before him with the greatest fear of God and humility; and let him pray with weeping voice that he teach him to do penance for all those offences which he has committed against the will of God; and let him confess to him his evil deeds, so that the priest may know what penance he ought to impose on him. Then let the priest ask him what faith he has in God; and let him exhort him in various ways to the need of his soul, and admonish him, and speak thus: Dost thou believe in God almighty, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit? Dost thou believe that all men will rise from the dead on the day of judgment? Dost thou repent of all those things which thou hast done ill, said, and thought? Wilt thou forgive 401Ball those who have ever sinned against thee? If he says, I will, then let him say to him: May God almighty have mercy on thee, and grant me what I ought. Fast every day in this Lenten season until None, and abstain from white food; and guard thyself against the eight capital vices, 402Athat thou commit them not; which are homicide, and theft, and perjuries, and avarice, and unlawful lying-together, and lust, and detraction, and false witness; and observe the twelve days of Lent, which occur in every year, and guard thyself against barbarous sacrifice, and sorcery, and lying with a virgin, and double speech, and pride, and covetousness of the possession of other men: guard thyself against all these, and love thy Lord with all thy mind, and with all thy strength, and all thy powers, and with thy whole inmost heart, steadfastly; and be kind toward the poor, and gentle, and distributing alms, and diligently visiting church, and diligently giving tithes to the Church of God, and to the poor: then God will be kind to thee, and beneficent, and merciful, and thou shalt reign with him for ever and ever 402Bwithout end, if thou doest so; and I pray thee to tell me all the evil that thou hast ever done, since it is more profitable for thee to be put to shame now, here, before me alone, a wretched man, than hereafter before God at the great judgment, where the dwellers in heaven, and the dwellers on earth, and those below will all be gathered together.

• 401

It befits every priest, when he imposes a penance of fasting on any persons, that he know who that person is, whether healthy, or sick; rich, or poor; how young, or how old he is; whether he is ordained, or a layman, and what penance he may do; whether he is unmarried, or married: 401Cdiscretion befits all men, although they do not commit adultery of set purpose. The rich are to be judged more severely than the poor, according to canon law.

Theodore, a holy and pious bishop, established this reading as an example and a teaching for all those who wish to amend their offences before God, and spoke thus: We read in the Penitential that penance is to be done for capital crimes for a year, or two, or three (on) bread and water; and for lesser crimes a week, or a month, all in the same manner. But this with some is a hard and difficult thing; therefore we will teach by what things he who cannot keep his fast ought to redeem it; that is, that he do penance with psalmody and alms over a long space of time 402B, and if he can fulfil all the things which are written in this book, it is very good and lawfully ordered; and if he cannot, let him sing fifty psalms in order in church, or in another secret place; and he who fasts one week on bread and water, let him sing three hundred psalms on bended knees, or three hundred and twenty without bended knees, as 402Cwas said above; and if anyone ought to do penance for the space of a month on bread and water, let him sing one thousand two hundred psalms on bended knees: and without bended knees one thousand six hundred and eighty; and thereafter every day let him take refreshment at midday, except Wednesdays and Fridays; then he must fast until None, and let him abstain from flesh and wine, that is, from every kind of drink by which one can be made drunk, and let him use all the other foods which God has given him, after he has sung; and if he neither knows the psalms nor can fast, let him distribute every day an obolus, or its value, to the poor; and every week let him fast one day until None, and another until Vespers, and let him use the things which he has, as was said above. And if anyone ought to do penance a whole year, let him distribute twenty-six solidi in alms, and every week let him fast two days, as was said above; and let him consider in those three 403ALents what his food has been, and let him distribute half of it in alms. In the second year the penance is to be begun from the Nativity of the Lord to the Epiphany, and from Easter to Pentecost; and the man who cannot do penance for his sins, as was said above, let him distribute in the first year twenty-six solidi in alms, and in the second twenty, and in the third eighteen, which are sixty-four solidi. And let the rich man know that God has entrusted to him many riches and possessions of this life, by which means he ought to amend his capital crimes. Let him take up the Gospel and read there how Zacchaeus spoke with the Lord, when he had received him into his house to dinner; then he called upon him, saying thus: Lord, of all my goods I hand over the half part to the poor; 403Band if by unjust fraud I have taken anything from anyone, I restore it fourfold. And then he merited to hear from the Lord: Today to this house salvation is come; that is, the remission of all sins. And to increase these good works, of which we spoke above, let him free and ransom those who are in captivity, and from that day on which he forsakes his injustice, let him not renew it thereafter, lest perhaps he be like the dog which devours what it vomited before; nor is that to be neglected which the Apostle said: He who sins through his body, let him make amends for this through his body; that is, in fasting, and in vigils, and in prayers, and in supplications to God, in compunction of heart, and with the shedding of tears.

The first abstinence is the baptism of fire, the second is the love of God, the third is the desire of alms, 403Cthe fourth is the shedding of tears in true penance, the fifth is the confession of misdeeds, the sixth is the affliction of heart and body in fastings, the seventh is that one's ways be corrected before God, the eighth is holy prayers for those misdeeds, the ninth is mercy and good faith, the tenth is that others be led from misdeeds to the will of God, the eleventh is the remission of God, that through this God may forgive him his sins, the twelfth is martyrdom, as was done at the passion of Christ.

A bishop, if he commits adultery, according to canon law let him fast twelve winters, and render many alms, and with the shedding of tears 403Dlet him entreat the honour of God. Some wish that he should thereafter deprive himself of his orders.

A presbyter, when he has fornicated, let him fast three winters, and three fasts through the week let him fast on two days until Vespers. If he has fornicated with a nun, let his fast be much increased, that is, seven years.

A priest who speaks impurely, or pollutes himself from the sight or look of a woman, and does not cleanse himself, let him fast twenty days; he who has been greatly polluted by his own will, let him fast a hundred days. If unwilling he has been polluted in sleep, let him rise and sing a psalm of the psalter, and 404Aon the next day let him bow his jaw to the ground thirty times. If unwilling he has been polluted, or if willing he has committed adultery in sleep, let him sing twenty-four psalms. If anyone sleeping in church has shed his seed, let him rise and sing the psalter. If a priest kisses a woman with desire, let him repent of it twenty days. If a priest is polluted when he has touched a woman, let him fast forty days; some wish thirty. If a priest is polluted by the will of his thought, let him fast a week; if by the touch of his hand, let him fast three weeks. If anyone has frequently committed fornication, the canon judges that he fast ten winters; some wish a year, and with discretion three.

• 404B

Whatever priest travels in his own province, or in any other, and if on his journey baptism is begged of him, and he refuses, is held back on his journey, and if the heathen infant dies, let him be stripped of his order.

Whatever presbyter, if he knows that he is not baptized, let him be baptized, and all those whom he had baptized before. Yet the Roman pope decreed, if the administrator of the Mass is vicious, or a pagan, that the service of the Holy Spirit was in the gift of baptism, not however in that of any man.

• 404C

If anyone loses his order, a presbyter, or a bishop, let him do penance until death, that his soul may live. A priest, if he kills a man or fornicates, let him be stripped of his order; if he wounds anyone, let him fast a hundred days.

When a priest celebrates Mass let him not wear a caracalla cassiata, but when he reads the Gospel, let him put it on his shoulder.

When a priest has spilled the chalice, after he has celebrated Mass 404D, let him fast thirty days; if he eats before he goes to the Eucharist, and after he has received the Eucharist, let him fast seven days.

If a presbyter has committed a theft of great price, let him fast five winters, or as the bishop has appointed for him.

If a deacon has fornicated, let him fast three winters, and a monk as many; if he has begotten a child, let him fast more, as the bishop or the laws have adjudged to him: a man not ordained, and who is not a monk, if he has fornicated, let him fast twelve months; if he has 405Abegotten a child, let him fast three winters; if he has killed it, let him fast seven winters.

A monk or a consecrated woman, if they have fornicated, let them fast seven winters; some wish three. A wife is not to be given to a young man, if he has previously had the monastic order in mind.

A layman having a wife, if he defiles the woman of another man, or a virgin, let him fast one winter; if he has a child, let him fast three winters; but if he is unmarried, let him fast seven winters; some wish ten. If anyone lies with his mother, or sister, or daughter, let him fast 405Btwelve winters, and yet let the priest see in what order he himself is. Any man having dealings with a beast, let him fast ten winters, or seven; some wish three winters, some one, some a hundred days; let him see what the man is, what the beast is. In all things prudence befits the priest, as we said before. Whoever has shed seed into the mouth, let him fast seven winters. Any man who has fornicated with his bondmaid, let him fast one winter; if she has had a child, let him redeem it, and yet let him fast one winter.

If a little boy is overpowered by an older one in coition, let him fast five nights; if he submits to him, let him fast twenty nights; if he steals, or eats an animal dead of itself 405C, and he himself knows this, let him fast seven days. If he is twenty years old and has done such a thing, let him fast twenty days. If the same pollutes himself with his hand, let him fast twenty days. If this happens in manly age, let him fast forty days; some wish a hundred.

Any man who has had dealings with his wife in her menstrual custom, let him fast forty days: and anyone who has drunk his own blood, or a man's seed, let him fast five winters. Any man fornicating in a church, let him be judged as seems just to the bishop, and let him be punished accordingly. If anyone has lain with a beast or with a male, let him fast ten winters. If 405Dboys commit fornication among themselves, let them be suspended. A beast, if it has been polluted by a male, let it be killed, and given to the dogs; if it is doubtful, let it be permitted to live.

On the fornication of heathens, and on him who has been baptized twice against his will, and on him who has been baptized by a presbyter unjustly fornicating, and on him who of his own will has been baptized twice. Let any heathen desert his heathen wife in his own power, after his baptism, whether he himself have (baptism) or not; so also if either of them is a heathen, or baptized. A heathen 406Aought to depart from a baptized person, as the apostle said: If the unbeliever departs, let him depart. He who has been baptized twice, so that he did not know it, let no fast be imposed on him, unless according to canon law he is to be consecrated, although he conceal his necessity. If a man has been baptized by an adulterous presbyter, let him be rebaptized at once. Anyone who knowingly baptizes someone a second time, this is as if he were hanging Christ, let him fast seven winters; two days of fasting through the week, and three let him fast in full.

A male ought to receive a female in baptism, and a female a male. The baptized [ Lege baptizans] let him not eat in the house with the baptized, nor kiss them, 406Bthe more because this is not lawful for him among heathens.

If any man or woman has vowed to keep celibacy, and then the man has been coupled in lawful matrimony, let this not be neglected, that he fast three winters, since a foolish and impossible vow has been violated. If the wife of any man commits adultery, the husband can desert her, and take another, if she was his first wife; but if she was the second or the third, he cannot take another; if the wife wishes to commit her misdeeds within five years, she ought to marry another man. If the husband is dead, the wife can take another within a year. Whatever husband has deserted his wife, and joins himself in an unlawful marriage (to another), let him fast seven 406Cwinters a severe fast, or fifteen lighter ones. Whoever has perpetrated many evils in homicide, and the killing of a man, and unlawful lying with beasts, and with women, let him go to a monastery, and fast always until the end of his life, if he has committed very many.

It does not befit a man to see his wife naked. When a man and a woman have been joined in matrimony, and the man cannot lie with her, the woman can desert him, and marry another, if this is manifest in the man. Parents ought to hand over women who are to be joined in matrimony to husbands; except if she herself has altogether refused, that she does not want him, then she, if he himself wishes, can let this go, and choose entrance to a 406Dmonastery, if she herself wishes. If a woman does not wish to live with the man to whom she was previously married, let the money be returned to him which he paid for her, and also the third part of her inheritance; and if he himself does not wish this, let him lose the money, and let the woman go away to a monastery, or elsewhere keep herself in chastity.

If a husband lies with his wife in the manner of dogs, let him fast forty days; if he lies with her entrails, let him fast ten winters. Any man coupling on Sunday, by day or by night, let him fast three days. Let a husband not lie with his wife forty days before Easter, nor seven days before Pentecost, nor fourteen days before the Nativity of the Lord.

• 407A

If anyone kills another in homicide, in anger and in secret, let him fast three years; some wish seven. Whoever consents to a homicide, and afterwards commits it, let him fast five winters; some wish seven, and for forty days let him not enter the church. Whoever has killed his own slave, let him fast one year. Whoever has brought weakness upon another in the genitals, or has inflicted a wound on him, let him compensate him for that wound, and do his work until the wound is healed, and hand over the fee to the physician, and let him fast two or three fasts; if he does not know how to pay, let him fast twelve months. Whoever has killed someone, let him fast three winters; but if he has been willing to compensate 407Bhis kinsmen for him, let him fast a year and a half. If anyone wounds another, for the shedding of blood let him fast forty days.

If anyone has killed a bishop or a presbyter, this pertains to the law of the king or of the bishop: whoever has killed a presbyter or a monk, let it be of episcopal law whether he lay down his arms, and go away to a monastery, or fast seven winters.

If anyone has killed another in public battle, or out of necessity, when he was rescuing his lord's goods, let him fast forty days. If anyone has killed another, by no means 407Cin homicide, let him fast twelve months. If anyone has killed his father, or mother, sister, or brother, son, or daughter, this is of episcopal law; some wish that he do penance in a foreign land ten winters. The man who hates his brother is a murderer, as John the evangelist says.

Two brothers can take two sisters as wives, and a father and a son a mother and a daughter. If a slave and a bondwoman join themselves by mutual will, and if afterwards one of them is manumitted, and cannot redeem the bondwoman, in whatever way he is free, he ought to gain the bondwoman's freedom 407D. Whatever free man has taken a bondwoman as wife, he ought not afterwards to leave her, if by mutual consent she had previously been a bondwoman. Whoever has made his wife free while she is in labour, the infant is nevertheless a slave. He who is in lawful matrimony, for three days before the Lenten fast, let him not come together, so also for the whole forty days until the ninth day in Easter. Whoever has had a husband or a wife, although unlawfully, yet in whatever way he can he ought to buy food for that one, since the prophet says: The earth is the Lord's. A husband and a woman, if they are joined in matrimony, if the one wishes to be a servant of God, and the other does not wish it, or either of them is an unbeliever, or is healthy, yet with mutual consent let them be separated if they wish.

• 408A

If a husband lies with his own wife, let him wash himself before he goes to church; if a woman rejects her husband from herself, and then will not come to her senses, and make peace with him within five years, the husband, with the consent of the bishop, can take another wife. If the husband of a wife is led into captivity, let her wait for him six years, and let the man do so for the wife, if captivity befalls her; if the husband takes another wife, and the captive returns after five years, let him desert the later one, and take the captive, whom he had formerly married in the same manner. When a man has been joined in adultery to a wife of his household, after the death of his own wife let him be joined to that wife by lawful right.

• 408B

A girl of fourteen years can have power over her own body. A youth, when he is fifteen years old, let him be in his own power; then he can make himself a monk, if he wishes, and not before. A woman, until she is thirteen or fourteen years old, let her be in the power of her parents; after this age her lord can take her, with his own will. A father can hand over his son into servitude, if he is very poor, until seven years have passed; yet let him not hand him over without the son's will. If a hostile man deprives someone of his wife, and he himself cannot obtain her, let him take another for himself, since 408Cthis is better than to commit the crime of adultery.

In the fifth degree let men be permitted to enter matrimony, and in the fourth, if this has occurred, let them not be separated, in the third degree let them be separated. Let a woman abstain from her husband seven months before he knows her, and after her giving birth forty days. Whatever husband lies with his wife in that time, let him fast twenty or forty days. A woman in her menstrual custom, let her not take refuge in the church, nor approach the Eucharist, neither a nun nor a lay woman; if anywhere they have done this let her fast twenty days.

• 408D

If a woman commits the magic art, and incantation, and sorcery, and anything similar, let her fast twelve months, or three fasts, or forty days: let her know how great a crime it is. If she lies with a sorcerer let her fast seven winters. A woman who enters a church before she cleanses herself from her blood, let her fast forty days. A woman, if she mixes a man's seed with her food, and does this so that she may be dearer to males by it, let her fast three years.

If a woman brings about an abortion of her conception in the womb 409Aand within forty days that which was conceived of seed is killed, before it is ensouled, let her fast three years as though for homicide, and every week two days until evening, and three the lawful fast; if she herself miscarries, a year, or three lawful fasts.

If a mother kills her infant, let her fast fifteen winters without cessation, except on Sundays. If she is poor, let her fast seven years; if she fornicates with others, let her fast ten years. If a woman aids her coition by some art, as she herself knows how, let her fast two years, since the pollution is hers. One fast befits widows and women. A greater befits a wife having a husband 409B, if she commits adultery. Let a wife not desert her husband, although he commit adultery. Let a wife approach the Eucharist before she gives birth, when it is most necessary for her. A woman who gives her husband's blood for some medicine, let her fast forty days.

If anyone sacrifices some great reward at least to devils, let him fast for a year; if he sacrifices anything great, let him fast ten winters: whoever sacrifices food assigned to enemies, and then confesses to the priest, let the priest see of what order the man is, or of what age, how experienced he is; and then let him judge thus, as shall seem most just to him. Whoever burns grain 409CIt is to be rendered in domo, "in the house." Wilkins. in the place where one has died, for the health of the living, and of the male, let him fast five winters.

If a woman places her daughter upon a house or an oven, for this reason, that she wishes to cure her fever, let her fast seven years. If she is in unlawful adultery, and her husband will not live with her, let her go away to a monastery, if she wishes; if she does not wish, let her take the fourth part of the inheritance. If any woman commits unjust adultery, let her punishment be in the power of her husband. A wife who is for one husband, if she promises God that after her husband's death she wants no other, and she herself 409Dtakes another, then let it repent her that she has not fulfilled her promise; let her wish then to amend about the eleventh year, after she has come into her husband's power; that is, whether she fulfil it, or whether of necessity she ought to live with the man with whom she is. If anyone promises without the consent of the bishop, let the promise be in the bishop's power, that is, whether he change it, or not.

If anyone commits perjury in a church or on the book of Christ, or over holy relics, let him fast four winters. If anyone commits perjury in the hand of a bishop, 410Aor of a priest, or of a deacon, or at the sanctified cross of Christ, let him fast one year. If anyone is led to an oath, and knows no other law besides this, and yet he swears with others, and so is deceived, and afterwards knows that it was false, let him fast three lawful fasts. Whoever of his own will forswears himself, and knows afterwards that he is perjured, let him fast three or two winters. If anyone swears in the hands of a layman, nothing hinders whether with cunning, let him fast according to canon law, before he goes to the Eucharist, before he has fixed his fast. Some wish that he approach at once about twelve months, or about seven months; some wish that when he has fixed his fast.

• 410B

The Greeks first threaten with words him who labours on Sunday; if he does it afterwards, then something of his work is at least taken away from him; the third time he is suspended, or they order him to fast seven days. The Greeks wish that on every Sunday laymen as well as priests go to the Eucharist; and he who for three Lord's days does not go to the Eucharist is excommunicated according to canon law. So the Roman goes to the Eucharist, except that he excommunicates him who cannot. Let deacons not break the consecrated bread with the Greeks, nor read the collects, nor say: The Lord be with you. On one and the same altar thou oughtest to celebrate two Masses daily. He who is not present at the earlier Mass ought not to approach the kiss before the Eucharist. He who does not wish to approach the Eucharist 410C, let him not approach the presbyter thereafter for bread, or for the Eucharist, or for the kiss. No one ought to approach the presbyter for the sake of the Eucharist who cannot fulfil the consecration or the reading according to custom.

For a dead monk Mass is to be sung at once on the third day, and according to what the abbot has wished. For a pious layman Mass is to be sung on the third day, or about the seventh day; for a penitent man Mass is to be celebrated about thirty, or about seven days, if his kinsmen and friends stand surety for him, and for his soul do at least some good to the altar. Among the Romans 410Dthe custom is for the body of a man departed and a husband to be buried in the church, and to anoint his body with chrism, and to celebrate Mass over him, and to carry him with chant to the tomb; when he has been laid in the tomb, to throw earth over him, then on the first, and the third, and the ninth, and the thirtieth day to sing Mass for him, and afterwards as each one wishes.

Let women approach the Eucharist under the rules of Bruno, as Basil taught. Among the Greeks wives were to offer the sacrifice, as among the Romans. There are three lawful fasts every year, one for the whole 411Apeople, namely forty days before Easter; then when we pay the annual tenth obolus, and this forty days before the Nativity of the Lord: then let all pray for the army, and read prayers, and forty days after Pentecost.

Fish may be bought, although they are found dead, since they are of another kind. Horse-flesh is not forbidden, although many households are unwilling to buy it; birds and other beasts which have been suffocated in nets are not to be eaten; nor are those which a hawk has bitten, if they are found dead, not to be eaten [non sunt edendae; read sunt edendae after neque, "nor are to be eaten"]; since it stands thus enjoined in the Acts of the apostles: Abstain 411Bfrom fornication, and from what is suffocated, blood and idolatry [Vulg. Acts 15:29 ab immolatis simulacrorum, et sanguine, et suffocato, et fornicatione, "from things sacrificed to idols"]. Herrings can be eaten and are good in fever, and diarrhoea, boiled in water, and their gall can be mixed with pepper for scab of the mouth (to be healed).

If bees have killed a man, let them be killed thus before they come to the honey, and at least so that they do not dwell there through the night; and let the honey which they have made be eaten. If a piglet has fallen into water, and is drawn out alive, let consecrated water be sprinkled over that water, and let it be fumigated with incense, and let that water be sold; if it is then dead, and then the water cannot be sold, let it be poured out. If anyone with impure hands touches, of whatever kind, either a dog, or a cat, or a mouse, or a clean or 411Cunclean animal, Theodorius said that it should grieve him nothing. If a mouse or a weasel has fallen into some small water, and dies there, let it be sprinkled with consecrated water, and let (the water) be sold. Whoever sells an unclean animal for his own need, let it grieve him nothing. It is permitted to sick men to take food at any time, and when it pleases them. If anyone is confirmed twice, and knows this, let him fast seven winters; if he does not know this, let him fast three winters.

• 412A

If a pig eats dead flesh, or swallows human blood, we nevertheless permit that it be not cast away, although it ought not to be eaten, until it is clean. If a hen drinks a man's blood, after three months it can be turned to use, although we do not have old testimony about this. If anyone eats something bloody, in half-boiled food, if he knows it, let him fast seven days; if he does not know this, let him fast three days, or sing the psalter. He who unknowing draws down his own blood in his saliva, this is not any harm. He who eats anything of that which a dog or a mouse has eaten, or by which a weasel has lain, and he himself knows this, let him sing a hundred and ten psalms. He who sells to another water in which a mouse 412Bor a weasel has been drowned, if he is a countryman, let him fast three days; if he is a religious, let him sing three hundred psalms; if he had not known before, and afterwards knows, let him sing the psalter.

Dionysius the Areopagite said that the chant would be hateful before God, if anyone celebrates Mass for evil men; but Augustine said that it is to be celebrated for all men, whether it be done for the benefit of dead men, or of those praying and liberally offering the host. He who fasts for a dead man, let this be a consolation to himself, if he has not helped the dead man. God alone knows what the dead man has committed.

Saint Sylvester said: Let an acolyte not defame any subdeacon, nor an exorcist defame any 412Cacolyte, nor a doorkeeper any lector by any law; and we do not wish that a subdeacon, or an acolyte, or an exorcist, or a doorkeeper, or a lector, although they have children, be cast out, and rightly proclaim the conjugal law and that of Christ: unless except, if all things are not as certainly pure as can be, let him speak with seven tongues; nor can any deacon be cast out, unless there be thirty-six in number (of witnesses), and a presbyter, forty-four in number.

• 411

It befits the priest to consider the amendment of sins according to episcopal law, and not to regard rich nor poor, so that he prescribe for them as the book prescribes for him; since the Saviour says, if the priest will not prescribe to the sinner the amendment of his sins, that he will afterwards require that soul of him.

Saint Isidore says that it was the opinion that a man's true confession and conversion would be acceptable to God 412Don his last day; since the Saviour says: On whatever day a man returns to a pious life, he shall live, and shall not die: therefore true repentance is not to be rejected, at whatever time it happen; for the priest has no necessity of denying true confession to those men, for God contemplates the interior thoughts of every man, and knows the secrets of the hearts of all men.

For a thief it is necessary that the priest console a man of this condition, and hear his confession, and at least not deny him 413Athe Eucharist; and although he be so shaken with that infirmity that he cannot speak, as he could before; yet if he has the testimony of those men who are with him, that he has made confession and received the Eucharist, then let the priest give him remission, and make his judgment.

Many men would wish to undertake penance, but they then doubt because of the multitude of their sins, and despair that they can bear that which the confessor prescribes for them, and they abandon it; then this despair is thought to be a graver sin than the sins which he was thinking to confess, and which he now neglects. But he who with compunction 413Bwishes to confess his sins, let him be received by the priest, and let him assign him a penance, which pertains to this, that the wounded soul, which through sins has been bound and wounded, may come to the true medicine, that is, the remission of God.

One thing is that a just man repent of all the things in which he offends against God, and the other is that he let go those things which are dearest to his body, out of love of eternal life; since Paul the apostle says: All things are lawful to me, but not all things are expedient for me: that is, the desire of the world, which profits nothing to those who 413Ccommit it fully; for it is very necessary for all men that they not omit to confess their sins, or to amend them, since it profits all men to correct their sins here, rather than to remain in eternal darkness.

Saint Isidore, who composed this book, speaks of him who begins penance for capital crimes, and who has been expelled from the land for a time; and he says that it is not permitted to him to practise any trade in a market place, nor to be occupied about any worldly business, before he has fulfilled that which his confessor has prescribed for him.

• 413D

Holy Scripture says that it is unseemly for a penitent, after he has amended as the confessor prescribed for him, to join himself in any way to worldly things, and never to think of the penance of which he formerly repented, since saint Paul says: He who wishes to serve God ought not to be occupied in worldly affairs.

The holy apostle Peter says that he who after penance for sins is turned to the vanity of this world, 414Ais altogether like the dog which vomits, and then devours. These are the vanities of this world; first pride, and wickedness, and envy, and hardness of heart, and theft, and drunkenness, and anger, and adultery, and heathen sacrifice, and avarice, and plunder, and incantation, and homicides, and many others like these: certainly the man who commits these things is not worthy of any communion with honourable men, and although he go to church with others, let him not (yet) presume to approach the altar of God, or to receive the body of Christ, before he has turned himself to penance; then let him do as the confessor prescribes and shows him.

414BIt does not befit a bishop and a priest to deny confession to those who desire it, although they have been occupied in manifold ways in the business of sins; since the mercy of God is so great that there is no man who cannot attain it; and the prophet said through the Holy Spirit: When the sinner is turned from his sins to penance, then he will be healed, and then he says: Confess thy injustice, that thou mayest be justified; and the Psalmist says: That with the Lord there is innumerable mercy; so the bishop and the priest ought to judge the sinner mercifully, since no one is free of vices.

414CIn the doctrine of the holy apostles it is said: If a man on his last day desires to receive the body of Christ, let it not be denied him: if, however, he has previously been in contrition, and although he has not fully amended this: since this is his viaticum, and that of all those who come to the kingdom of God. And if afterwards he returns to this life, so that he observes this which he promised to God and to his confessor, let him use his own good portion, and let him dwell with well-mannered men.

It most of all befits the priest diligently to consider the necessity of the soul of him who seeks to do penance 414D, how most justly he may prepare him for the will of God, and for the benefit of that soul; let him also always prescribe penance to him, according to the reckoning of the offence: and if the offence is so capital that it ought to be prescribed by the bishop, let him be led thither: since saint Augustine says in another place: that if anyone were bound by capital crimes, he should be led to episcopal law, and if he cannot reach the bishop, that the presbyter in those matters should discharge the vicarious office of the bishop.

These customs are observed among the Christians beyond the sea, namely, that every bishop be in his episcopal see 415Aon the Wednesday which we call the head of the fast, before Lent; then every one of them who is polluted with capital crimes in that province ought on that day to come to him, and confess his sins to him, and he then prescribes to each one the amendment of his sins, according to the measure of his offence; and so, with his leave, he returns home. And then on the Thursday before Easter he gathers them all to the same place, and the bishop chants over them, and gives remission (to them), and so let them return home with the bishop's blessing. This is to be so observed by all Christians, and the priest ought diligently to consider whether the penitent has amended with some compunction, and with some perfection, that which was prescribed to him, and so let him give him remission according to that.

• 415B

If the eucharist has been refused to anyone, and he meanwhile dies, concerning these things we can declare nothing else, except that it belongs to the judgment of God; since it was in the power of God that he died without the eucharist.

• 416A

Whosoever is bound by various sins, and is willing to confess them to his confessor with a compunct mind, and out of love of eternal life, and to amend as he prescribes to him; we allow that he have remission from God.

Here saint James notes: that if anyone is sick, he should invite to himself his priest, and other ministers of God, that they may admonish him, and let the sick man declare his need to him, and let them anoint him in the name of God 416Bwith holy oil, and through the prayers of the faithful, and through the anointing he can be preserved, and the Lord raises him up; and if he is full of sins, they shall be remitted to him. Every faithful man, if he can, ought to obtain this anointing for himself, and the ordinances which pertain to it, since it is written that whosoever has had this discipline, his soul is as pure after death as that of an infant who dies straightway after baptism.

• 415B

415CA layman who kills anyone without fault, let him fast seven years: three on bread and on water, and four as the confessor shall have prescribed to him, and after the penance of seven years, let him always diligently be sorry for his offences, in what way he can, if he wishes to have remission from God, since it is unknown to him how acceptable to God his penance will be; if he did this unwillingly, let him fast five years. He who wished to kill another, and cannot accomplish his will, let him fast three years; one year on bread and on water, and two as his confessor shall have prescribed to him. If a layman kills anyone unwillingly, let him fast three years; one year on bread and on water, and two as his confessor shall have prescribed to him. If he be a subdeacon, let him fast five years; if he be a deacon, let him fast 415Dseven years; if he be a presbyter, let him fast ten years; if he be a bishop, let him fast twelve years. If anyone kills his own infant unwillingly, let him fast five years; three on bread and water, and two as his confessor shall have prescribed to him. If any bishop, or presbyter, kills a man, let him lose his order.

If any woman kills her infant within her by a potion, or by other various things, or then, after it has been born, kills it, let her fast ten years; three on bread and on water, and seven as her confessor shall mercifully wish to prescribe to her.

• 416B

416CIf anyone kills his (man) possession, and if he has no witness of that which was committed, except that he killed him both in fury and through carelessness, let him fast two years.

If any wife, out of some light fury, hangs her bondwoman, and she dies by the hanging, and is innocent, let the mistress fast seven years. But if she has witnesses that she was guilty, let her nevertheless fast three years.

If anyone kills himself with weapons, or with other divers things, 416Dat the instigation of the devil, it is not permitted that a mass be chanted for such a man, or that his body be committed to the earth with any psalmody. The same law is to be done to him who loses his life in torment for his offences.

A man who pollutes himself with a beast, or male with male in indiscriminate things, if he is twenty years old, so that he can understand that he has committed a foul and unseemly thing, let him come to his senses, confess, and fast fifteen years; and if he is a husband having his wife, and perpetrates any such thing, let him come to his senses, and fast as long as he lives, and let him not presume to receive the body of the Lord before 417Athe end of his days. Youths and the imprudent who have committed any such thing are by all means to be suspended.

He who commits adultery, let him fast seven years, three days in the week, on bread and water, and if a woman has another man besides her true lord, let her be worthy of the same.

A man who deserts his true wife, and takes another wife, is an adulterer; let no presbyter give him the eucharist, nor any of those rights which befit Christians; and if it happens that he dies, let him not be buried 417Bwith Christians. And if a wife deserts her true husband, and chooses another, let her be worthy of the same law, as was said above; and the kinsmen who shall have been party to this, let them lose the same right, unless they first be willing to turn themselves to penance, as their confessor shall have prescribed to them.

To a man who has a lawful wife and also a concubine, let no presbyter give him the eucharist, nor any of those rights which are done for Christians, unless he turns himself to penance. And if he has a concubine, and not a lawful wife, that which seems good to him is to be done, yet let him know that he is bound to one of them, whether it be the concubine, or the wife.

• 417C

If any man lies with another's lawful wife, or a wife with another's true consort, let him fast seven years; three on bread and on water, and four as his confessor shall have taught him.

If any wife takes two brothers, one after the other, into consortship with herself, let them be liable to judgment, and let them be in penance as long as they shall live, as their confessor shall have prescribed to them, and after their death, let the priest do for them that right as is to be done 417Dfor Christians, if they promise that, if they should live longer, they would amend themselves. If anyone shall have remained in some unspeakable offence up to his end, we cannot prescribe to him any penance, except that it looks to the law of God.

If any wife has been betrothed, it is not permitted that any other man despoil her; if anyone does this, let him be excommunicated.

If anyone by fraud has forced a wife, or a girl who is a bondwoman, 418Aunwilling, to unlawful intercourse, let him be excommunicated.

If anyone by wiles entices another man's handmaid away from him for the sake of fornication, and lies with her unwilling, if he be an ordained man let him lose his order; if he be a layman, excommunicated.

If any girl has been betrothed, and meanwhile is laid waste, or driven off by any mischances, let her be his to whom she had been betrothed; and if afterwards it happens that they become near, 418Blet her be joined with leave, since she, unwilling, had been (separated) from him.

If any wife is ordained with the common order, and she afterwards despises the bridegroom to whom she had formerly been betrothed, that is Christ, and returns to worldly vanities, and takes up a household, and thinks with her possessions and the substance of the world to appease the wrath of God which she has stirred up; yet she cannot do any of those things which are worthy of a pious body, nor can any presbyter ask confession of her, before she has forsaken her sin, and has returned to Christ, and 418Cthen lives her life as her confessor shall have prescribed to her.

If any girl dwells in fellowship with the ordained, and tends to the same order, and meanwhile through the temptation of the devil is incited to fornication, let her not be innocent before God, although she is not ordained, since she was formerly thinking to become a bride of God; then it is most of all necessary for her that she confess her sins and amend, as her confessor shall have taught her.

If anyone has taken to wife his nearest kinswoman, or the widow of his father or of his brother, or his own mother by the womb, let him be excommunicated by all Christians; and if he turns himself to penance, as he has need, 418Dlet him make amends always, and do penance as long as he is, according to episcopal law.

If anyone takes to himself as wife a nun, who is called the bride of God, let her be excommunicated from the communion of all the faithful. The sacred books say that he is liable before Christ in the same way as a king's minister who should lie with the king's consort. And if this happens anywhere, as it does not happen, that anyone should have fallen into it through the temptation of the devil, let them be separated, and let each of them always do penance, and pray always as long as he is among the living, according to episcopal law.

• 419A

It is not permitted to any Christians that they contract marriage more than twice; since saint Paul forbids this in his teaching, and teaches all men how they ought to conduct themselves in this matter; that is, if the first wife of some husband is dead, that with leave he may take another wife; and if he survives her, let him dwell always thereafter without a wife.

So also a woman, if she has buried her first husband dead, let her with leave take another, if she wishes to choose this; and if she then survives, let her remain always 419Bthereafter in the order of a widow, as long as she lives. And if any man or woman has violated this, let them not despair of the mercy of God, but let them turn, and amend, as their confessor shall have prescribed and shown to them.

The sacred books note what each of the faithful is to do when he has first brought his lawful spouse home; that is, according to the prescription of the book, that for the first three days and nights they keep their chastity, and then on the third day let their mass be done, and without the eucharist, let it be received, and then let them hold their wedlock before God, and before the world, as is needful to them. 419CAnd it befits all households to keep their chastity forty days and nights before Easter, and the whole Easter week. And then, the nights of Sunday, and of Wednesday, and of Friday; let every wife also keep her purity three months before childbirth, and after childbirth, sixty days and nights, whether the infant be male, or female.

If anyone vows, or makes an offering at any torrent, or at a stone, or at a tree, or at any other creatures, except at the church of God, in the name of God, let him fast three years on bread and on water. And though he presume to eat or drink in any place (of this kind), and to offer no victim, nevertheless let him still fast 419Done year on bread and on water.

Assuredly it is not permitted to Christians to commit vain divinations, as the heathen do; that is, that they believe in the sun, and the moon, and in the course of the stars, and appoint divinations of times for beginning their affairs. Let no gathering be made with any incantation, except with the Pater noster and with the Credo, or with any prayers which pertain to God. If anyone commits this vain thing, let him come to his senses and confess, and fast forty days; and if afterwards he has joined himself again to that vanity, let him fast three Lents.

• 420A

If any layman forswears himself, and knows that he is perjured, let him fast four years; if he be a man of common condition, let him fast five years: a subdeacon six years, a deacon seven, a presbyter ten, a bishop twelve. And if anyone has been forced to forswear himself, or if he does not know it, let him fast three years, one on bread and water, and two as his confessor shall have prescribed to him, and if he is not ordained, let him restore someone to freedom out of love of God. And if anyone forswears himself out of fear of someone, or love, or for some usury, let him distribute his possessions to the poor, and go away to a monastery, and amend, as his confessor shall have set down for him, and let him do penance always as long as he is among the living.

• 420B

If anyone steals a precious thing, if he be a layman, let him fast five years, a subdeacon six, a deacon seven, a presbyter ten, a bishop twelve. And if anyone takes away a thing of middling value, let him return the theft to him who possessed it, and fast a year on bread and on water; and if he has not the means to return the theft, let him fast three years on bread and on water.

If anyone has been (found) in false witness, it is not permitted to him to receive the eucharist before he confesses, and amends as his confessor shall have 420Cprescribed to him.

Assuredly it is lawful to no Christian to offer a gift to God in the church of God, so long as he has envy, or fury, or any discord in his heart toward his neighbour; since his gift is not acceptable to God, before he reconciles himself, and makes amends with his neighbour. Since the Saviour says in his Gospel: If thou offer a gift at the altar of God, and there remember that thy brother, that is: any Christian, cherishes enmity with thee, leave there thy gift, and go to thy brother, and be reconciled with him, and then come to the altar and offer to God an acceptable gift.

• 420D

If anyone is so furious and hard of heart that he is unwilling to return to no law of the world and peace with him who has offended against him, let him be excommunicated.

Whosoever for some discord becomes the enemy of his neighbour, and is so rigid that he takes an oath that he will not return into any favour with him who has offended against him, let him be excommunicated. But if he wishes to turn back, and return into favour, let him fast one year on account of the oath, and three Lents with bread and water; and in that year let him fast besides, as his confessor shall have prescribed to him.

• 421A

To every faithful man it is forbidden to lend his money, or his possessions, for any unjust tribute, that is, that he not offer to return more than he had before received on loan; but out of love, and on account of 422Aneed, let each lend his money to others, and his possessions, as he would wish it to be done to himself. If anyone does this out of some avarice, the sacred books prescribe for him a fast of three years; one year with bread and water, and two as the confessor shall have prescribed to him.

• 421A

If a presbyter or a deacon takes a wife, let him lose his order, and if after they have been ordained they commit fornication, 421Bbesides these things let them also fast seven years according to episcopal law.

If a presbyter has been accused of capital crimes before he was ordained, and first confessed them, and corrected them, as his confessor prescribed to him; if afterwards, after he has been ordained, he commits the same vices, he ought not to do any service at the altar of God, but let him remain elsewhere with men of common condition; and if he wishes to turn back, let him amend, as the bishop shall have prescribed to him.

421CIf a presbyter or a deacon kills a man or forswears himself, let him lose his order, and if they wish to turn themselves to penance, let them amend according to episcopal law.

The priests of God, and deacons, and other ministers of God, who ought to serve God in the temple of God, and to handle with their hands the sanctuary and the sacred books, let them always keep their chastity. But if any man of this kind has fallen into fornication, let him confess to his confessor and amend as he shall have prescribed to him; because the Saviour says: Be ye holy, because I the Lord God and your Lord am holy.

• 421D

Priests, and deacons, and ministers of God, who themselves are neither willing nor able to keep before God the chastity which is enjoined upon them, let them be thrust out from their ministry, which pure men render to God in the house of God; and if thereafter they wish to turn back and confess, let them amend, as their confessor shall have prescribed to them.

Assuredly it is forbidden to all in the sacred books, to each bishop, and abbot, and presbyter, that they have near them the neighbour of no wife; so also it is forbidden to every minister of God who ought to serve God in chastity, that they have within 422Awith them neither their kinswoman, nor any other wife, for the business of any matter, lest perhaps through the temptation of the devil they sin with them.

422BIf a bishop, or an abbot, or a presbyter, or a like minister of God, shall have lent his money for unjust tribute, and does not remember that which the Saviour says through David the psalmist: Then you ought to use the riches of him who hands over his money for no unjust tribute. If anyone has done contrary to this, he is not worthy to receive the eucharist, before he has amended this, as has been said here above, that is, by a fast of three years.

It is permitted to no presbyter, nor to a deacon, that they be reeves, or stewards, or occupied about any worldly business, except about those things to which they have been titled.

• 422C

It does not befit a true minister of God, who is occupied about the services of God, to go from place to place, from house to house, desiring his neighbour's wife, without the leave of his teacher. But if anyone has this custom, let him come to his senses, and amend, as his confessor shall have prescribed to him.

It does not befit a monk who has vowed himself to God, and takes up the holy rules, to desire any worldly honour, or to violate that which he has vowed to God; if he has done this, let him come to his senses, and amend, as the bishop 422Dprescribes to him.

If a monk and a nun, who have consecrated themselves to God, and have vowed their vow to God, violate this through the temptation of the devil, let them be separated from all ordained men; and if they wish to turn back to God, let them first confess with tears, and amend, as long as they are among the living, as the bishop of the province shall have prescribed to them.

We often read in the sacred books that it is not just that any lay wife, unclean, should handle the mysteries of God on the altar 423Aof Christ, nor the sacred books, nor the sanctuary, which consecrated men ought to handle with their hands, since saint Paul has greatly forbidden this.

It befits every priest to know the doctrine which pertains to his holy order, and to teach it to the people, and to prepare them for the judgment of God, and for the profit of their soul.

As soon as saint Augustine had introduced baptism among the nation of the English, and had everywhere established servants of God, 423Band ordained them, he sent a letter to Rome to saint Gregory, who was pope there, and asked him that he would send him by letter what is to be done concerning the nocturnal pollution which often befalls men in sleep; whether on the morrow a man may go to the eucharist, or consecrate the eucharist, if he were a presbyter. He too sent him a prudent answer, and said that every minister of God should diligently inquire from what things nocturnal pollution arises, since it springs up in the sleeping mind from three causes: sometimes from natural infirmity and weakness, sometimes from superfluity of food and drink, sometimes also when one thinks and meditates by day on vain and forbidden things, which, when he thinks on them waking by day, come upon him sleeping by night. And so, when anyone has been polluted in 423Csleep from fleshly weakness, this was not in his power; let him pray diligently to God, and seek remission from God. And if this arises from superfluity of food or drink, let him be liable; yet the eucharist is not to be refused him, nor the celebration of mass, if he be a presbyter, if it be most needful, and no other priest be present who may perform this ministry; but if another be present who can render this ministry, it is better for him if on that day he omits this, and diligently 424Awith psalmody and alms seeks remission. But if it happens in the third manner, that a man by day sees, or thinks, or meditates a forbidden thing, and a harmful love befalls, and burning desire, and then through this, and through the deceit of the devil, he is polluted in sleep, it is not permitted to him to take the eucharist on the morrow, after this has befallen him; but he has need to confess it and amend, as his confessor shall have prescribed to him.

Here it is said, as saint Paul teaches, that every presbyter who has been appointed to teach the people of God, that he spare none of them out of fear of any man, 424Bnor for any money, so that he does not preach to all men what they are to do and what to leave undone, if he himself wishes to be saved on the day of judgment before God himself.

Let every presbyter be as he is called. Sacerdos is a Greek word, and in Latin signifies sacrum dans, "giving the holy"; he ought to give the holy to the people for whom he has been appointed teacher and shepherd, that is, that he show them holy conduct and examples; let him admonish them, lest there be said of them the terrible word which the Saviour said concerning the shepherds of the people of Israel, saying: Woe to you shepherds, who use the milk of the flock, and clothe yourselves with their wool, and when they were fat, you cut them up, and when they were sick, 424Cyou do not strengthen them, nor heal the ailing, and when they were broken, you do not restore them, and when they were scattered, you do not gather them, and you do not seek the scattered. Now all my flock is seditious, because they have not any shepherd, and they have become food for all the wild beasts. All this is said of bishops and of presbyters, who ought on the day of judgment to lead the people of God to judgment, each one to the portion which was assigned to him beforehand in life.

• 423

423DIf any bishop kills a man, let him lose his order, and fast twelve years; seven on bread and water, and for five (years) three days in the week, and on the rest let him use his own food.

If a presbyter, or a monk, kills a man, let him lose his order, and fast ten years; five with bread and water, and the remaining five three days in the week, and let him use his other food.

If a deacon kills a man, let him lose his order and fast seven years, four with bread and water, and three (years) let him fast three days in the week, and on the rest let him use his own food.

424DIf a cleric kills a man, let him fast six years, three with bread and water, and three let him fast three days in the week, and on the rest let him use his own food.

If a layman kills anyone, let him fast five years, three on bread and water, and two let him fast three days in the week, and on the rest let him use his own food.

If anyone kills an ordained man, or his kinsman, let him leave his country, and his possessions, and go away to Rome to the pope, and do afterwards as the pope shall have prescribed to him.

If a bishop commits any fornication; or commits adultery, let him fast twelve years; a presbyter and a monk ten years, and a deacon seven and 425Aa cleric six years, and a layman five years, as is written here above concerning homicide.

If any ordained man, a bishop or a presbyter, or a monk, or a deacon, had his consort before he was ordained, and deserts her out of love of God, and takes up orders, and afterwards they are joined to each other through fornication, let each fast according to his order, as is written above concerning homicide.

If anyone commits fornication with a nun who has been betrothed to God himself as her bridegroom, if he be a bishop, let him fast twelve years, seven with bread and water, and for five (years) three days in the week on bread and water, and on the rest let him use his own food, excepting flesh alone; and let each one fast according to his order, likewise as has been said here above concerning homicide. And 425Blet the nun fast ten years, altogether as is written above concerning presbyters.

If anyone wished to commit fornication with a nun, and she was unwilling to consent, let him fast one year for that unjust will on bread and water.

If anyone wished to commit fornication with another's lawful wife, and she was unwilling to consent, let him fast for his unjust will three Lents; the first at midsummer, the second at the autumnal equinox, and the third at the Nativity of the Lord.

If anyone wishes to commit fornication with a woman, and she is unwilling to consent, let him fast forty days and forty nights on bread and water.

If anyone despoils another of his daughter, let him make amends with the friends, and let each of them fast one year on 425Cbread and water, and the remaining days let them use their own food, excepting flesh; and let him afterwards take her to wife, if the friends are willing.

If the devil has so beset anyone that he lies with dumb beasts, let him confess to his confessor, and fast fifteen years, seven on bread and water, and seven each year let him fast three Lents on bread and water, one Lent before Easter, and the second after Pentecost, and the third before the Nativity of the Lord, and let him always fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, as long as he shall live.

If anyone has the custom of polluting himself of his own will, let him fast three years; in each of these years three Lents on bread, and water, and on the remaining days let him leave off flesh daily, excepting the Lord's days, 425DSundays.

If anyone destroys another by incantations, let him fast seven years, four on bread and water, and three on three days in the week on bread and water.

If anyone strikes someone with a cudgel, let him fast three years on bread, and water, and two let him fast three days in the week on bread and water, and if the man dies from the cudgels, let him fast seven years, altogether as is written here above.

If anyone uses incantations to win for himself the love of someone, and gives them to him in food, or in drink, or in incantations of any kind, that his love may thereby be increased, if a layman does this, let him fast half a year on Wednesdays and Fridays on bread and 426Aon water, and on other days let him use his own food, excepting flesh alone. If he be a cleric, let him fast one year, two days in the week on bread and on water, and on the remaining days let him abstain from flesh. If he be a presbyter, let him fast five years; one on bread and water, and four on every Friday on bread and water, and on every other day let him abstain from flesh.

If anyone employs sortilege or divination, or keeps his vigils at any torrent, or at any other creature besides the church of God, let him fast three years, one on bread and water, and on two days, Wednesday and Friday, on bread and water; and on the remaining days let him use his own food, excepting flesh alone.

Let a wife be liable in the same way, if with any incantations she brings forth an infant, or drags (it) to 426Bthe crossroads and through the earth; all this is great paganism.

If any wife of her own will destroys the infant within herself by her potion, or corrupts it by any things, let her fast seven years; three on bread and water, and on the rest let her use her own food, excepting flesh alone.

If any layman wounds another, let him make amends to him for the wound and pay for the medicines, and fast one Lent before the Nativity of the Lord on bread and water.

If anyone wounds a cleric, let him fast two Lents: one before midsummer, and the other before the Nativity of the Lord, always on the second day on bread and water.

If anyone breaks into the church of God for the sake of theft, let him return the theft, and fast seven years, as is written here above concerning homicide.

426CIf anyone steals food or clothing, and hunger and nakedness have forced him to it, let him fast three weeks on bread and water; but if he can return the theft, let him not be forced to the fast, but let remission be given him out of love of God.

If any Christian has sold his own infant, or his neighbour's, for any price, let him not have any fellowship with Christians before he has redeemed him from servitude; but if he cannot get him back, let him hand over as much money as he had before received for him, and redeem him from servitude and free him, and fast seven weeks on bread and water; and if he has not the means to be able to redeem him, let him fast eight and twenty weeks on bread and water.

If anyone eats blood or dead flesh, and 426Ddoes not do this out of necessity, let him fast twelve weeks, always on the second day on bread and water.

If anyone has touched a wild beast with an arrow, and yet it has fled, and after the third day it is found dead, and a dog, or a wolf, or a fox, or a bear, or a wild beast of another kind has attacked it, let no Christian touch it.

If a wolf tears a beast of any kind, and it thereafter dies, let no Christian touch it; but if anyone has done this, let him fast four weeks on bread, and water: if it has lived and afterwards is killed, let them use it with leave.

If any wild beast has been suffocated in a net, it is not permitted to anyone to use it; if anyone uses it, let him fast four weeks, always on the second day on bread and on water.

427AIf anyone finds a dead fish in a fishpond, and eats it, let him fast four weeks on Wednesdays and Fridays on bread and water, and on the remaining days let him abstain from flesh; and if anyone finds a dead fish in a river, let it be eaten.

If any ordained man goes off to hunting, if he be a cleric, let him abstain twelve months from flesh; a deacon two years, a presbyter three, and a bishop seven.

If any bishop, or ordained man, often gets drunk on purpose, either let him abstain from this, or let him lose his order: if a monk vomits from excessive drunkenness, let him fast thirty days.

If a presbyter or a deacon vomits from drunkenness, let him fast forty days; if a layman vomits from drunkenness with permission, let him fast forty days; if through 427Bfraud he gets another drunk, let him fast forty days.

If a mouse has fallen into water, let it be drawn out; and let it be sprinkled with consecrated water, and if it be alive let the water be sold; but if it be dead in it, let it be poured out and the vessel washed.

Then it is said in another place, if much food has been gathered (there), let consecrated water be sprinkled, and let (the food) be sold if it be necessary, and someone be in great need of it.

In the fifth generation the faithful can join themselves together; and in the fourth, if they be found, let them not be separated; in the third generation let them be separated.

Let a woman in her menstrual custom not go to church, nor receive the eucharist, neither a nun, nor a lay woman; and if she has done this, let her fast twenty days.

If anyone sells something which a dog, or a mouse, or a 427Cweasel has violated, or has begun to eat, and he himself knows this, let him chant a hundred psalms; if he does not know it, let him chant fifty psalms.

If anyone through his carelessness loses the eucharist, let him fast three Lents on every Friday on bread and water, and on the remaining days let him use his own food, except flesh.

If it, not consecrated, falls to the earth through carelessness, let him chant fifty psalms.

If anyone neglects the consecrated eucharist, so that it is kept too long, and there be some impurity in it, or it has not its form, let him fast forty days.

If anyone vomits the host from drunkenness, or from wantonness, let him fast forty days.

If anyone vomits the eucharist from infirmity, let him fast 427Dseven days, or chant two psalters.

If anyone casts the host into the fire, or into a river so that it rots for eating, let him chant a hundred psalms.

If a dog devours anyone's vomit, let (the vomiter) fast a hundred days; if he did not know this, let him fast forty days.

If any host be impure or too old, let it be burned.

If a mouse eats the host through the carelessness of him who ought to keep it, let him fast forty days; he who loses any part of the host, let him fast twenty days.

He who in the witness of the people loses his chrism, and does not find it afterwards, let him fast three Lents, or one year.

428AHe who spills the chalice during his mass, let him fast thirty days.

He who has eaten before he goes to the eucharist, and afterwards eats the eucharist, let him fast seven days.

If a husband and wife were joined in matrimony, and one of them wishes to be a minister of God, and the other is unwilling, or one of these be sick, the other healthy; yet with mutual consent, if they wish, they can be separated, and let this be with the witness of the bishop.

A minister of God who has been polluted in sleep, let him rise, and chant seven psalms, and bend his knee to the earth at the end of each verse, and fast the next day on bread and water; or let him chant thirty of those psalms which seem best to him; and at the end of each verse let him bend his knees to the earth.

428BIf a swine, or a hen, or an animal of any kind eats of the body of a man or drinks his blood, let the animal be killed, and given to the dogs.

If anyone burns another man's house, let him fast three years, always every second day on bread and water, and the remaining days let him fast in turn, and abstain from meat.

If an animal of any kind falls into a pit of water, and is found dead there, let that hollow be purged, and let consecrated water be sprinkled in it; and if anyone tastes of it before the pit has been consecrated, let him fast one week on bread and water; if he did not know this, let him fast one day on bread and water.

If anyone, on account of his infirmity or softness, cannot bear this fasting and severity which the confessor prescribes for him, it is permitted him to redeem his fasting 428Cwith piety and with the means of the world; that is, therefore, if anyone be rich, let him give for the fasting of twelve months thirty solidi; if he is not so rich, then let him pay twenty solidi; if he is not even so rich, let him give ten solidi. But if he is poor, so that he does not have even ten, let him give three solidi, because a rich man can more easily hand over thirty solidi than a poor man three: let a true solidus always be of twelve oboli. Alms of this kind are to be divided into three parts; one is that which is to be laid upon the altar of God; the second, that by which men are redeemed from servitude; and the third, then, is to be kept so that it may be distributed for the needs of the Church.

The fasting of one day can be redeemed with one obolus, or with two hundred psalms, and in another way: let one sing Have mercy 428Don me, O God twelve times, and the Our Father twelve times; and at the end of each verse let him prostrate himself on the ground before the altar of God; and if anyone does not know the psalmody, then for the fasting of one day let him sing the Our Father fifty times, and prostrate himself on the ground as many times. And a fast of seven years one can redeem in twelve months, if on every day he sings the psalter, and another by night, and fifty (psalms) at evening.

With one mass the fasting of seven days can be redeemed, and with ten (masses) the fasting of four months can be redeemed, and with twenty masses the fasting of seven months can be redeemed; and with thirty masses the fasting of twelve months can be redeemed. If anyone wishes with true love of God to intercede for himself, it is said in the Holy Scriptures that almighty 429AGod gives men remission of sins in twelve ways. The first remission of sins is through the washing of baptism. The second remission is through the love of God and of men, that one love God with the whole heart, and then his neighbour, that is, any Christian, as himself. The third remission is through the distribution of alms: because it is written that just as fire is quenched with water, so alms blot out the sins of men. The fourth remission is through psalmody, and the shedding of tears, that one do penance for his sins and weep, just as one does for the death of his friend. The fifth remission is through the confession of sins, that one confess his sins to his confessor, and reveal his secrets to him, and then make amends, just as he 429Bshall have prescribed for him. The sixth remission is that one, out of love of God, and for the salvation of his soul, overcome the unjust desires of his body, and so subdue himself through fasting and through other virtues, that the inner man, that is the soul may be held for godly. The seventh remission is that one forsake his possession, and his children, and his fatherland out of love of God, and go away into a foreign land, and there end his life. The eighth remission is when one departs from this life through punishment; and his friends, while he was among the living, can redeem him, and obtain remission for him with God through pious services, and through their worldly possessions. The ninth remission is mercy and good faith. The tenth remission is when we turn someone from his sins to the will of God. The eleventh remission is 429Cthat one, out of love of God, forgive the offences of those who have offended against him, because the Saviour says in his Gospel: Forgive and it shall be forgiven you. The twelfth remission is martyrdom, as was done for the thief before the passion of the Lord, when the Saviour said to him: It is true, what I tell thee, now today thou shalt be with me in the kingdom of my Father.

These are the divine precepts which are to be observed by us, that is, first, true love of God and of men, and chastity, and fasting, and constancy, and that we be humble, and moderate, and kind, and patient, and meek, and hospitable, and full of alms and of holy vigils, and that we be merciful, and peaceable; and let us leave these aside, namely pride, and avarice, and envy, and vainglory, and 429Dtheft, and robbery, and fornication, and surfeiting, and homicide, and perjuries, and lying, and cursing, and contention. The time of services comes in every year, that each one should speak with his confessor, and with his confessor's leave begin his fast, and confess to God and to his confessor the offences which he has committed; whether homicide, or the slaying of a man, or fornication, or any one of those things in which we can offend against God: then mayest thou have (O man) true faith toward God, and at this devout time pray diligently (since thou knowest what thou hast done) with thy fastings, and with thy alms, and with thy prayers, which thou knowest as best thou mayest, and on every Lord's day come to church 430A, and there pray diligently for thyself, and for all the baptized people, and for the confessor, and then thou shalt have prayed for us all. My beloved, I ask thee to consider how thou wast brought forth into this world; and how, and what thou givest to this world in return; and how thy body and soul are to be separated; and afterwards in what place of abode thy soul must await the day of judgment; and also the time when the soul, and thy body are to be gathered together, and then led to the judgment of God: and then thou, and every man, shall be justly recompensed for his works, and shall receive from that judgment; and then with soul and body thou shalt obtain eternal life, or eternal death, according as thou hast offended before, as well eternal life as endless punishment. Then when first in the morning 430Bthou hast risen, sign thyself as diligently as thou canst, and pray to God; when thou hast betaken thyself to bed, the same, that he may remit thee thy sins through God, and, after death, give thee eternal rest and his mercy. Come now, my beloved, consider what our parents were before, and what sort we now are; or which of those now appear, who a hundred years ago were covered with the dust of the earth, such as we shall soon be, when the soul has gone out of the body. Come now, my dear one, since God grants us (time), let us beware of sins, and of those vices which the devil suggests to us: all rage comes from the devil, and all contention, and all misfortune. Come then, let us resist him, and calm our mind, and implore the mercy of God, 430Cand his help, that we may be able to observe his precepts. Come now, let us frequent our churches on Sundays and feasts, and often between these times, the more often the better, and let us beware of envy, and of anger, and of useless words, and of surfeiting, and of blasphemy, and of double speech, and of false witness, and of homicide, and of perjuries, and of frequent fornications, and of any impurity of our body. And come now, let us consider how we ought to prepare our soul, and our body, since God grants us (grace) that we be occupied in that whereby at least after this world we may have rest from the mercy of God. My Lord, I ask thee, who in thy Gospel sayest to all the truly faithful: Ask and it shall be given you: I ask thee, my Lord, 430Dhumbly, that thou grant me that which I beseech, if it please thee, and that the salvation of my soul may endure for ever with the blessing of my worldly life.

If anyone swears between the hands of a bishop, or of a presbyter, or of a deacon, or on the altar, or on a consecrated cross of Christ, and it be forsworn, let him fast three years. If anyone forswears himself on an unconsecrated cross of Christ, let him fast one year; he who commits perjuries, let him fast three years. If anyone fornicates with a woman, let him fast three years, or two in full. If anyone commits adultery with the wife of another man, let him fast four years, two entire, the other two in three Lents, and three days in the week. He who lies with an effeminate man, or with another male, or with a beast, let him fast ten 431Ayears. In another place it is said, he who lies with a beast, let him fast fifteen winters; and let sodomites fast seven years. If an effeminate lies with an effeminate, let them do penance ten years; if an effeminate has so fornicated once, unwarily, let him fast four years: if it be from habit, as Basil used to say, if he be not ordained, fifteen years, one year altogether as a woman; if he was a boy, the first time two years; if he does this again, let him fast four years; if he did it in the daytime, one year, or three Lents; if he pollutes himself, let him fast four days without meat; if he desires to fornicate, and cannot, let him fast forty days, or twenty; if he be a boy, and does this often, let him either be suspended, or fast twenty days. If a wife fornicates, let her do penance three years 431B; if she herself imitates the same manner of fornicating with herself, let her do penance one year. The same penance is that of widows; and a woman who has a husband deserves a greater (penalty) if she fornicates. He who puts semen into the mouth, let him fast seven years: for this has been judged by some the worst (crime), so that they should do penance always until the end of their life. He who lies with his mother, let him fast fifteen years; and let him never desist, except on Sunday, and on the feasts of the saints, and let him also go away into a foreign land, and there fast seven years. He who lies with his sister, let him fast seven years; in some canons it is said twelve years, because their mother touched 432Athose things, which opposes these I would rather read: because it befits their mother to set herself against this. Wilkins.. He who fornicates often, the first canon judges that he should do penance ten years; and the second canon judges seven years; if it happens on account of someone's weakness, some say three years. If a brother lies with a brother by coupling of the body, let him fast fifteen years without meat. If a mother lies with her little son, let her fast three years; (so) that she does not taste meat one day in the week until evening. He who pollutes himself with impure thoughts, let him do penance until the thought has passed. He who loves women in his mind, let him ask forgiveness for himself from God; if he seeks their friendship, that is, love, and does not obtain it, let him fast seven days. If anyone kills a man in vengeance for his kinsman, let him do as a homicide for seven years or ten; 432Bif he pays, let him fast half of the time. If anyone kills a man in vengeance for his mother, three years, or ten (let him fast); a homicide ten or seven. If anyone kills a monk or a cleric, let him forsake his arms, and serve God, or fast ten years: and let this be of episcopal law. He who kills a bishop or a presbyter, let this be of the king's law. He who kills a man at the command of his lord, let him fast forty days; if he does this through anger, let him do penance three years; if he did this to no purpose, let him fast one year; if he kills a man out of drunkenness, or through some unskilfulness, let him fast three years; if he kills a man in a useless quarrel, let him fast ten years.

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431CIf anyone pays the debt of prayer too slowly or too lukewarmly, let it be redeemed with weepings, sorrows and prayers.

If anyone, prostrate in prayer, has dozed, let him, prostrate on the ground, purge this fault with tripled prayers, with a tripled chanting of the fiftieth psalm.

If anyone at the time of prayer has presumed to play, and to give himself to idle tales, which is most wicked, let it be expiated with vigils, weepings, prayers. If he has had it as a habit, let it be expiated with a greater penance.

If anyone chanting a psalm has stumbled even a little, prostrate in prayer on the pavement let him beg pardon from the Lord.

If any cleric or monk, being in health of body, 431Dhas been absent from the vigils and the daily offices, let him lose communion.

If any cleric without infirmity of his poor body is absent from the vigils, let him be deprived of his stipend and excommunicated.

If any cleric, when the signal has been given, has not at once hastened to the church, 432Che shall be subject to reproofs.

If anyone at the time of prayer and of the psalms, for the sake of wandering and of weariness, has run about hither and thither, or in the office itself has strayed with wandering glances, let him do penance at the discretion of the prior.

A cleric who is established to have been drunk, as the order permits, we decree is to be removed from communion for the space of thirty days, or to be given over to corporal punishment.

If any cleric or monk has been a drunkard, let him do penance three months on bread and water.

If any cleric [be] wanton, petulant, a scoffer, foul-mouthed, given to jesting, inconstant, wrathful, fearful, obstinate, let him do penance for three days at the discretion of the prior. 432D

If any cleric has sworn by creatures, let him be most sharply rebuked; if he has persisted in the vice, let him be excommunicated.

A cleric, if without the order of his prior he makes useless runs through the streets of the city, let him do penance. 433A

Let a cleric not walk through the streets and andronas That is, places where the people flow together., except by a certain necessity, and that of his greatest duty.

If any cleric has presumed to speak alone with a woman alone, without two or three witnesses, which the ancient statutes of the canons forbid, let him be most sharply reproved, and according to the measure of the sin let him do public penance. The holy Fathers Augustine, Jerome, Basil, Gregory, and very many others forbade this by their edicts.

If anyone has thought of something which is according to the commandment of the Lord, and has not done it, he will be condemned by the Lord as a liar and a contemner, unless he has done penance in this life.

If anyone has determined to do some things which do not please the Lord, let him do penance according to the measure of the sin, 433Band what he rashly and unjustly determined, let it be revoked as void.

If anyone has not rendered to guests and pilgrims the services they need, with joy and eagerness according to his ability, if he is a layman, let him do penance at the discretion of the priest, and be amended for the rest, lest he hear from the Lord: I was a guest, and you did not receive me (Matth. XXV) [Vulg. Matt 25:43 hospes eram, et non collegistis me, "I was a stranger, and you took me not in"]. But if he has been set over in some grade in the ecclesiastical, according to the sublimity of his consecration, let him do a fuller penance with tears and prayers, and afterwards be amended.

If anyone turns over evil and useless thoughts in his heart, let him soon disclose them to his priest, and according to his counsel, with fastings, alms, weepings and 433Cprayers let him beg the divine help, until a passion of this kind recedes.

If anyone established in the clergy has done anyone damage in a very small thing, let him restore what is another's, and do penance for three days; a layman for two days.

If anyone has sinned by word against any man, if, at once remembering, he has been inclined to ask pardon, let him receive forgiveness from him to whom he is known to have done the injury. But he who either does not ask, or does not ask from the heart, let him be subject to a penance fitting the excess of the injury.

If anyone who inflicted an injury does not consent to make satisfaction, let him be admonished to render satisfaction to him. But if he will not hear, let him be to us as a gentile and a publican (Matth. XVIII) [Vulg. Matt 18:17 Si autem ecclesiam non audierit, sit tibi sicut ethnicus, "But if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen"]. 433D

If anyone who has been saddened has been unwilling to be reconciled, when he who saddened him makes satisfaction, let him be worn down with the sharpest fasts, until he receives the satisfaction with a grateful mind.

They who cast insults at one another, if they recognize that these are quickly to be remitted between them, these are not now to be judged by another, because they have equally hastened to give pardon to one another; provided however that they do not presume to exceed more frequently among themselves.

If any cleric has presumed to be proud, let him more often be excommunicated from his own See below, chap. 32. food. A wanton man likewise shall be subject to a like sentence. 434A

If anyone consecrated in any ecclesiastical grade has been a striker (which ought not to be), let him be most sharply reproved with ecclesiastical satisfactions: if he has not amended, let him, most zealously subjected to weepings, do penance three months only on bread and water.

If any presbyter, deacon or monk has loved idleness, foolish talk, scurrility, garrulity, sleep, sloth, torpor, and things like these, let him do penance for three days.

If any monk has violated the sanction of the rule, and against the usage of the elders has presumed to eat meat, he shall be subject for the space of six months to confinement and penance.

He who detracts, or gladly hears one detracting, 434Blet him do penance for three days: but if [he detracts] from a prelate, let him do penance for seven days.

He who detracts from a brother, or hears one detracting, and suffers it, ought to be excommunicated. But if [he detracts] from him who presides, let him be excommunicated more amply.

If anyone is not willing to be reconciled to his brother whom he holds in hatred, let him do penance on bread and water so long, until he is reconciled to him.

If anyone is roused, and is saddened, and is angry against him who roused him to prayer, Another reading: let him be excommunicated from his own food, as above, chap. 25. he ought to be excommunicated, and not to eat until, pierced with compunction, he acknowledges his folly, and so, converted, receives pardon.

If any Christian is found a liar, which ought not to be, because Christ our Lord, 434Cfrom whom he received his name, is truth, let him do penance according to the quality and quantity of the lie. For it is written: Thou shalt destroy all who speak a lie. And, every lie is from the devil (Psalm. V).

If any Christian has given himself to idle tales, to foolish talk, to jesting words and those that move laughter, which according to the definition of the Lord, and of his holy apostle Paul, is known to be sin; let him disclose it to his priest, and do penance according to his judgment and the measure of the offence. Let no Christian think little of or neglect even his least sins, which are wont to be done in vain and windy thoughts, in superfluous and idle speeches, in works done without necessity, such as is the appetite 434Dfor foods, immoderate laughter, superfluous sleep, and innumerable such things: but rather let him greatly fear to stand before the tribunal of the strict judge, to render an account for these. For it is written: Of every idle word that men have spoken, they shall render an account to God in the day of judgment (Matth. I) [Vulg. Matt 12:36 omne verbum otiosum … reddent rationem de eo, "they shall render an account of it", with no "to God"]. And again Scripture: God will leave nothing unpunished. And therefore for these and other sins let him do penance.

If anyone is contentious or a gainsayer of holy commands, or a liar or disobedient, or clamorous in speech, or wrathful, or a scoffer, or given to jesting more than is seemly, or answering 435Aharshly, and altogether whatever is against the authority of the Holy Scriptures; according to the measure 436Aand the work of the sin, let him do penance at the discretion of the priest.