Letter 1. Canon IX. Our Lord is equal to the man and woman
forbidding divorce, save in case of fornication; but custom requires women to
retain their husbands, though they be guilty of fornication. The man deserted
by his wife may take another, and though he were deserted for adultery, yet St.
Basil will be positive, that the other woman who afterward takes him is guilty
of adultery; but the wife is not allowed this liberty. And the man who deserts
an innocent wife is not allowed to marry.
Letter 2, Canon XXIV. A widow put into the catalogue of widows,
that is, a deaconess being sixty years old, and marrying, is not to be admitted
to communion of the Good Thing, till she cease from her uncleanness; but to a
widower that marries no penance is appointed, but that of digamy. If the widow
be less than sixty, it is the bishop's fault who admitted her as deaconess, not
the woman's.
Letter 2, Canon XLIV. The deaconess that has committed lewdness
with a pagan is not to be received to communion, but shall be admitted to the
oblation, in the seventh year-that is, if she live in chastity. The pagan, who
after [he has professed] the faith, betakes himself again to sacrilege, returns
[like the dog] to his vomit: we therefore do not permit the sacred body of a
deaconess to be carnally used.
