Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/The Fourth Ecumenical Council/Canons/Canon XXVII

Canon XXVII.

holy Synod has decreed that those who forcibly carry off women under pretence of marriage, and the aiders or abettors of such ravishers, shall be degraded if clergymen, and if laymen be anathematized.

Notes.

If a clergyman elope with a woman, let him be expelled from the Church.&#160; If a layman, let him be anathema.&#160; The same shall be the lot of any that assist him.

This canon is found in the Corpus Juris Canonici, Gratian&#8217;s Decretum, Pars II., Causa XXXVI., Q. II., canon j.

In many old collections this is the last canon of this Council, e.g., Dionysius Exiguus, Isidore, the Prisca, the Greek by John of Antioch, and the Arabic by Joseph &#198;gyptius.&#160; The reader familiar with the subject will have but little difficulty in explaining to his own satisfaction the omission of canon xxviij. in these instances.