Letter 41: Severus distinguishes forgiveness and communion from restoration to priestly service.

Solon has asked Severus about Maximus the presbyter, who committed fornication after ordination and then undertook years of serious repentance. Severus begins with Moses' practice of sending hard cases upward for judgment. Solon has done the same by reporting the case to the apostolic see, not because Severus thinks highly of himself, but because difficult questions need a clear canonical answer. The answer is severe but carefully drawn. Repentance brings forgiveness and restores communion in the bloodless sacrifice, but priestly service is the reward of a blameless life. The canon of Neocaesarea says that a man who sinned bodily before ordination and later confessed may retain some functions but may not offer. If that is true of sin before ordination, Severus says, it is even clearer for sin committed after ordination. He notes that Solon has already acted leniently by allowing Maximus to perform morning and evening prayers and sit with the presbyters. What he must not do is let people hide behind vague appeals to the spirit of the canons when the actual words are plain. One searches for the spirit only where the text has not defined the matter. Here the words have defined it: Maximus may be forgiven and received, but he may not return to the sacred ministry.

It is written somewhere in the legal writings that the divine Moses, after appointing judges over Israel, allowed them to judge unimportant causes (I must quote the actual expression of the God - inspired utterances): ^ but a hard matter they were to report to him, and from him to receive the solution that God "the knower of secrets " (this also I take from another scripture) - should reveal and signify to him. You also therefore as a giver and teacher of divine laws have followed this rule and reported to the apostolic see {not to my mean self who scarcely see even what p- 130- is before my feet owing to the denseness of my under- standing) a matter which seemed to be hard. There- fore your love of God must know that Maximus the presbyter, who has fallen into the snare of fornication, although he has shown fervent repentance, and for a period of five years has given himself up to such labours, cannot be restored and take his place in the sacred office: and it is a simple thing for us to obtain a solution of this question without trouble from the holy canons themselves. For indeed the God-loving bishops who met together at Neocaesarea made these distinct pronouncements in the ninth canon: " If a ^ Ex. xviii. 26. -' Su. 42. presbyter be promoted after having previously sinned with his body, and confess that he sinned before ordination, he shall not offer: but he shall retain the rest of his functions on account of his zeal in other respects." ' If then a man who before ordination has sinned with his body, i.e. has committed fornication (for this the Apostle also said, " Every sin is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body " ""), is not permitted to offer, but to retain the rest of his functions on account of his zeal in other respects, how can it be doubted that he who has committed this same sin after ordination cannot ofter the divine sacrifice, or consecrate the water of regeneration, or perform any such function? p- ^v- Let no man say, " What then is the advantage of repentance to a man who has committed fornication, if he is not after labours of continence to be restored to the sacred service? " Repentance brings about forgiveness and bestows communion in the bloodless sacrifice for the sake of purification and preservation upon those who wash away the sin by tears and the other forms of bodily mortification: but the service of the priesthood is the reward of a blameless character. The ninth canon of the three hundred and eighteen holy fathers also says thus, as you also know, "If men have without examination been promoted to be pres- byters, and ^ being examined have confessed the sins committed by them, and after they have confessed 1 Mansi ii. 542. - i Co. vi. 18. ^ Gk. y]. some men being moved in a manner contrary to the canon have laid a hand upon them, such men the canon does not accept: for the catholic church requires blamelessness." ^ I forbear to say that you have adopted a very mild policy and one of exceeding leniency in the matter of Maximus, because the canon did not say anything plainly about a man who commits fornication after ordination. You have openly per- mitted him (this was stated in your letter) to perform evening and morning prayers, and to sit on every the case of a man who has sinned before ordination and afterwards confessed; for this is clearly written down in the ninth canon of those who met together at Neocaesarea, which we mentioned a short time ago, which says that he should retain the rest of his functions on account of his zeal in other respects, but should not again go so far as to offer the rational sacrifice, and do things like this and of equal honour. Therefore, since you have the nature of what ought to be done from the canonical utterances themselves, do not allow anyone to take refuge in the unknown, and in the pretence of searching into the spirit of the holy canons. One seeks for the spirit in cases where nothing is defined in actual words and phrases