[Matrimonial Precepts Concerning Clergymen.]
XVII. We have already said, that a bishop, a presbyter, and a deacon, when they are constituted, must be but once married, whether their wives be alive or whether they be dead; and that it is not lawful for them, if they are unmarried when they are ordained, to be married afterwards; or if they be then married, to marry a second time, but to be content with that wife which they had when they came to ordination. 86 1 Tim. iii. 2, 12; Tit. i. 6. 1 Tim. iii. 2, 12; Tit. i. 6. We also appoint that the ministers, and singers, and readers, and porters, shall be only once married. But if they entered into the clergy before they were married, we permit them to marry, if they have an inclination thereto, lest they sin and incur punishment. 87 [See Elucidation XIII. vol. v. p. 160, this series.] [See Elucidation XIII. vol. v. p. 160, this series.] But we do not permit any one of the clergy to take to wife either a courtesan, or a servant, or a widow, or one that is divorced, as also the law says. Let the deaconess be a pure virgin; or, at the least, a widow who has been but once married, faithful, and well esteemed. 88 Lev. xxi. 7, 14; 1 Tim. v. 9. Lev. xxi. 7, 14; 1 Tim. v. 9.
[17] Ἐπίσκοπον καὶ πρεσβύτερον καὶ διάκονον εἴπομεν μονογάμους καθίστασθαι, κἂν ζῶσιν αὐτῶν αἱ γαμεταί, κἂν τεθνήκασιν, μὴ ἐξεῖναι δὲ αὐτοῖς μετὰ χειροτονίαν ἢ ἀγάμοις οὖσιν ἔτι ἐπὶ γάμον ἔρχεσθαι, ἢ γεγαμηκόσιν ἑτέραις συμπλέκεσθαι, ἀλλ' ἀρκεῖσθαι ᾗ ἔχοντες ἦλθον ἐπὶ τὴν χειροτονίαν. Ὑπηρέτας δὲ καὶ ψαλτῳδοὺς καὶ ἀναγνώστας καὶ πυλωροὺς καὶ αὐτοὺς μὲν μονογάμους εἶναι κελεύομεν: εἰ δὲ πρὸ γάμου εἰς κλῆρον παρέλθωσιν, ἐπιτρέπομεν αὐτοῖς γαμεῖν, εἴγε πρὸς τοῦτο πρόθεσιν ἔχουσιν, ἵνα μὴ ἁμαρτήσαντες κολάσεως τύχωσιν. Οὐδενὶ δὲ τῶν ἐν τῷ κλήρῳ κελεύομεν ἢ ἑταίραν ἢ οἰκέτιν ἢ χήραν καὶ ἐκβεβλημένην λαμβάνειν, ὡς καὶ ὁ Νόμος λέγει. Διακόνισσα δὲ γινέσθω παρθένος ἁγνή: εἰ δὲ μήγε, κἂν χήρα μονόγαμος, πιστὴ καὶ τιμία.