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Rufinus, wrote his Summa Decretorum between 1157 and 1159 AD. It became
a normative source for later Church lawyers.
- Deaconesses
- Women may not distribute holy communion
- Women and menstruation
- Women to stay out of Church after child
birth
Translation from the latin by John
Wijngaards
Deaconesses?
Rufinus comments on the contradiction between the 15th Canon of the Council of
Chalcedon (which allows deaconesses once they are 40 years old) and
‘Ambrose’ (=Ambrosiaster) who rejects deaconesses altogether:
“I consider it sufficiently amazing how the Council decrees that
deaconesses should be ordained after 40 years, while Ambrosius states that
ordaining deaconesses goes against authority. For he says in his commentary on
the Letter to Timothy at the verses ‘Women should be modest, etc.’:
‘The Cataphrygae use these words to prove that deaconesses should be
ordained, which is against authority.’ (Read
Ambrosiaster).
But it is one thing
for women to be ordained through the sacrament for an office at the altar, in
the way deacons are ordained, and this is forbidden; quite another matter to be
‘ordained’ to some other ministry of the Church, what is permitted in
this text.
However, today this kind of deaconesses are not found in the
Church. Perhaps, abbesses are ordained in their stead.”
On Causa 27, question 1, chapter
23
Women may not distribute holy
communion
With
regard to communion for the sick, which Gratian reserved totally to priests,
Rufin says that in case a priest is ill it is allowed to have the sacrament
being taken by a boy. However, a woman would not come into question.
“Unless the priest falls ill. For in that he case he may send
communion to the sick through a boy, if there is great urgency.”
On distinctio 2, de cons. chapter
29
Women and menstruation
Rufinus also speaks of the terrible affliction of
menstruation.
“That blood is so execrable and impure, as already Julius Solinus
has written in the book about the miracles of the world, that through its
contacts fruits do not mature, plants wither, the grass dies, the trees lose
their fruits, the air becomes dark, if dogs eat it they are afflicted with
rabies..... And intercourse at the time of the monthly period is very risky.
Not only because of the uncleanness of the blood has the desire to be
restrained from contacting a menstruating woman: from such an intercourse a
spoilt foetus could be born.”
On Distinction 5,
beginning
Women to stay out of Church after child
birth
Rufinus contradicts Gregory the Great who allowed a woman to enter a church
immediately after childbirth, by saying that this permission has now been
abolished in the practie of the Church.
“This permission to the woman has now been abolished because of
the contrary practice of the Church and mostly because of what we read in the
penitentiary of Theodorus, that if a woman has presumed to enter a church
before a predefined time, she has to do penance by fasting on bread and water
for as many days as she would have needed to stay away from Church”.
On Distinction 5, chapter
2
Rufinus also denies the woman any powers in court cases, either as a judge, or
as a witness, or in any other function.
Source: Ida Raming, The Exclusion of Women
from the Priesthood, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen 1976, pp. 50-54.
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