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325 - 381 AD
Translation from the Ante-Nicene Fathers,
Series II, vol. XIV. For a complete electronic copy, visit the
Christian Classics Ethereal
Library, the New Advent
Library. Italics in the text by John Wijngaards.
The main purpose of the local Council of Gangra was to assess and
condemn the teaching of Eustathius, Bishop of Sebaste.
- Marriage may not be condemned
- Marriage not be renounced out of contempt for
it
- Women should not wear male clothes
- Women should not cut off their hair
Marriage may not be
condemned
Canon I. IF any one shall condemn marriage, or abominate and
condemn a woman who is a believer and devout, and sleeps with her own husband,
as though she could not enter the Kingdom [of heaven] let him be anathema.
Note. This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici,
Gratian's Decretum, Pars I., Distinc. xxx., c. xii. (Isidore's version),
and again Dist. xxxi., c. viii. (Dionysius's version).
Marriage not be
renounced out of contempt for it
Canon IX. IF any one shall remain virgin, or observe continence,
abstaining from marriage because he abhors it, and not on account of the beauty
and holiness of virginity itself, let him be anathema.
Note. This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici,
Gratian's Decretum, Pars I., Dist. xxx., c. v., and again Dist. xxxi.,
c. ix.
Women should not wear
male clothes
Canon XIII. IF any woman, under pretence of asceticism, shall
change her apparel and, instead of a woman's accustomed clothing, shall put on
that of a man, let her be anathema.
Note. Eustathian heretics had recommended women to assume male,
that is probably monk's attire, in order to show that for them, as the holy
ones, there was no longer any distinction of sex; but the Church, also from
ascetical reasons, forbade this change of attire, especially when joined to
superstition and puritanical pride.
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Gratian's
Decretum, Pars I., Dist. xxx., c. vi.
Women should not cut off
their hair
Canon XVII. IF any woman from pretended asceticism shall cut off
her hair, which God gave her as the reminder of her subjection, thus annulling
as it were the ordinance of subjection, let her be anathema.
Note. The apostle Paul, in the first Epistle to the
Corinthians, xi. 10, represents the long hair of women, which is given them as
a natural veil, as a token of their subjection to man. We learn from the Synod
of Gangra, that as many Eustathian women renounced this subjection, and left
their husbands, so, as this canon says, they also did away with their long
hair, which was the outward token of this subjection.
This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Gratian's
Decretum, Pars I., Dist. xxx., c. ij.
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