Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 1475
Pope Siricius (384-398) forbids ordaining priests and deacons who have married twice. Siricius, Letter to Himerius, bishop of Tarragona, Rome, AD 385.
Letter 1
 
12. Digamus sacerdos aut diaconus non ordinetur.
Didicimus etiam, licenter ac libere inexploratae vitae homines, quibus etiam fuerint numerosa coniugia, ad praefatas dignitates, prout cuique libuerit, aspirare. Quod non tantum illis qui ad haec immoderata ambitione perveniunt, quantum metropolitanis specialiter pontificibus imputamus, qui dum inhibitis ausibus connivent, Dei nostri, quantum in se est, praecepta contemnunt. Et ut taceamus quod altius suspicamur, ubi illud est, quod Deus noster data per Moysen lege constituit, dicens, Sacerdotes mei semel nubant? et alio loco: Sacerdos uxorem virginem accipiat, non viduam, non repudiatam, non meretricem? Quod secutus Apostolus ex persecutore praedicator, unius uxoris virum tam sacerdotem quam diaconum fieri debere mandavit. Quae omnia ita a vestrarum regionum despiciuntur episcopis, quasi in contrarium magis fuerint constituta. Et quia non est nobis de huiusmodi usurpationibus negligendum, ne nos indignantis Domini vox iusta corripiat, qua dicit: Videbas furem, et currebas cum eo, et ponebas tuam cum adulteris portionem: quid ab universis posthac ecclesiis sequendum sit, quid vitandum, generali pronuntiatione decernimus.
 
[...]
 
15. Quisquis sane clericus aut viduam, aut certe secundam coniugem duxerit, omni ecclesiasticae dignitatis privilegio mox nudetur, laica tantum sibi communione concessa; quam ita demum poterit possidere, si nihil postea, propter quod hanc perdat, admittat.
 
(ed. Coustant 1845: 1140-1142)
Letter 1
 
12. A priest or deacon who married twice should not be ordained.
We learned, furthermore, that men of unexamined life, who even had many wives, boldly and freely aspire just as they please to the aforementioned ranks. We place blame for this not so much on those who reach for these things with immoderate ambition as on the metropolitan bishops specifically, who, when they close their eyes to forbidden strivings, disdain as far as is possible the precepts of our God. Let us be silent about what we suspect more deeply; but what of that which our God constituted in the law given through Moses, saying, "Let my priests marry once," [cf Lev 21:13] and in another place, "Let a priest take a virgin as a wife, not a widow, not a divorced woman, not a prostitute" [Ezek 44:22]?  Guided by this the Apostle, a persecutor turned preacher, commanded that both a priest and a deacon should be made "the husband of one wife." [1 Tim 3:2]  All of these things are thus despised by the bishops of your regions, as if they were decreed more in the opposite sense. And because we should not ignore presumptions of this sort, lest the just voice of an indignant Lord reproach us when he says, "You saw a thief and you ran with him, and you cast your lot with adulterers," [Ps 50(49):18] what henceforth should be followed by all churches, what should be avoided, we decree by general pronouncement.
 
[...]
 
15. Any cleric indeed who marries a widow or a second wife should thereupon be stripped of all privilege of ecclesiastical rank, with only lay communion conceded to him, which he can then have provided that he does nothing henceforth for which he should lose it.
 
 
 

Discussion:

"Priests" ("sacerdotes") refers here to both bishops and presbyters, because "levites" are certainly deacons.
The reference to Leviticus is inexact: the relevant passage obliged the Old Testament priests to take only virgins as their wives, as it is repeated in Ezekiel.

Place of event:

Region
  • Rome
  • Iberian Peninsula
City
  • Rome

About the source:

Author: Siricius
Title: Letters, Epistulae
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The letter, written in early AD 385, is the response to the questions sent by Himerius, bishop of Tarragona in the Iberian Peninsula, to the predecessor of Siricius, Damasus. It is considered to be first papal "decretal", i.e. a letter aimed at correcting doctrinal errors and impose discipline in an authoritative way.
Edition:
P. Coustant ed., S. Siricii papae epistolae et decreta, Paris 1845, Patrologia Latina 13, 1131-1178.
H. Wurm, Studien und Texte zur Dekretalensammlung des Dionysius Exiguus, Bonn 1939.
 
Translation:
Robert Somerville and Bruce Brasington, Prefaces to Canon Law Books in Latin Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998) 36-39
Bibliography:
A. Ferreiro, "Pope Siricius and Himerius of Tarragona (385): Provincial Papal Intervention in the Fourth Century”, [in :] The Bishop of Rome in Late Antiquity, , Farnham, Burlington 2015.

Categories:

Family life - Marriage
    Family life - Permanent relationship before ordination
      Family life - Permanent relationship after ordination
        Family life - More than one marriage
          Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς
            Reasons for ordination - Personal ambition
              Impediments or requisits for the office - Marriage
                Public law - Ecclesiastical
                  Relation with - Wife
                    Relation with - Woman
                      Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
                        Administration of justice - Excommunication/Anathema
                          Administration of justice - Demotion
                            Theoretical considerations - On priesthood
                              Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1475, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1475