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so that by the weight of the iron, and by its sharpness, and by the very long trajectory, the blow necessarily became lethal. Again, completely voluntary and having no doubt is the action of robbers and of military attacks. For these men kill for money, avoiding exposure, and those in wars come for the purpose of killing, choosing openly not to frighten or to discipline, but to destroy their opponents. And indeed, even if for some other reason someone mixes a potent drug, and kills, we consider such an act voluntary; as women often do, trying with certain incantations and spells to draw men to love them, and they give them drugs that cause darkness to their minds. Such women who kill, even if they intended one thing and did another, nevertheless because of the potent and forbidden nature of the practice are counted among voluntary murderers. And so also women who give abortifacient drugs are murderesses themselves, as well as those who receive the embryo-killing poisons. So much for these things. 188.9 But the Lord's decision, according to the sequence of its meaning, applies equally to both men and women, that it is not permitted to depart from a marriage except for the reason of fornication. But custom is not so, but concerning women we find great strictness, with the Apostle saying that: "He who is joined to a prostitute is one body," and Jeremiah that: "If a woman belongs to another man, she shall not return to her husband, but being defiled she shall be defiled," and again: "He who keeps an adulteress is foolish and impious." But custom commands that even adulterous men and those engaged in fornication be kept by their wives. So that I do not know if she who cohabits with an abandoned man can be called an adulteress. For the blame here attaches to her who dismissed her husband, for what reason she departed from the marriage. For if, being beaten, she could not bear the blows, she should have endured it rather than be separated from her spouse; or if she could not bear financial loss, this excuse is not worthy either. But if because he lives in fornication, we do not have this observance in ecclesiastical custom, but a woman was not commanded to separate even from an unbelieving husband, but to remain because of the uncertainty of the outcome. "For what do you know, O woman, whether you will save your husband?" Therefore she who has left her husband is an adulteress, if she has gone to another man. But he who was left is pardoned, and she who cohabits with such a man is not condemned. If, however, the man, having departed from his wife, went to another, he too is an adulterer, because he makes her commit adultery; and she who cohabits with him is an adulteress, because she has transferred another's husband to herself. 188.10 Let those who swear not to accept ordination, when they swear it, not be compelled to perjure themselves. For even if there seems to be some canon that gives allowance to such men, yet we have learned by experience that those who have perjured themselves do not prosper. But it is necessary to consider also the form of the oath and the words and the disposition from which they have sworn and the subtle additions in the words; so that, if there is no allowance from any quarter, one must leave such men entirely alone. The matter concerning Severus, however, that is, the presbyter ordained by him, seems to me to have some such allowance, if it seems so to you as well. Order that field that is subject to Mestia, for which the man was proscribed, to be subject to the Vasodoi. For in this way he too will not perjure himself by not departing from the place, and Longinus, having Cyriacus with him, will not desert the church, nor will he condemn his own soul through idleness. And we will seem not to be doing anything against the canons, by accommodating Cyriacus who swore to remain with the Mindanoi, but accepted the transfer. For the return will be an observance of the oath. And his yielding to the dispensation will not be counted to him as perjury, because it was not added to the oath that he would not depart from the Mindanoi even for a short time, but that he would remain for the future.

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ὥστε καὶ τῷ βάρει τοῦ σιδήρου καὶ τῇ ἀκμῇ καὶ τῇ διὰ πλείστου φορᾷ ὀλεθρίαν ἀναγκαίως τὴν πληγὴν γενέσθαι. Ἑκούσιον δὲ πάλιν παντελῶς καὶ οὐδεμίαν ἀμφιβολίαν ἔχον οἷόν ἐστι τὸ τῶν λῃστῶν καὶ τὸ τῶν πολεμικῶν ἐφόδων. Οὗτοι μὲν γὰρ διὰ χρήματα ἀναιροῦσι τὸν ἔλεγχον ἀποφεύγοντες, οἵ τε ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις ἐπὶ φόνους ἔρχονται, οὔτε φοβῆσαι οὔτε σωφρονίσαι, ἀλλ' ἀνελεῖν τοὺς ἐναντιουμένους ἐκ τοῦ φανεροῦ προαιρούμενοι. Καὶ μέντοι, κἂν δι' ἄλλην τινὰ αἰτίαν περίεργον φάρμακόν τις ἐγκεράσῃ, ἀνέλῃ δέ, ἑκούσιον τιθέμεθα τὸ τοιοῦτον· οἷον ποιοῦσιν αἱ γυναῖκες πολλάκις, ἐπαοιδαῖς τισι καὶ καταδέσμοις πρὸς τὸ ἑαυτῶν φίλτρον ἐπάγεσθαι πειρώμε ναι καὶ προσδιδοῦσαι αὐτοῖς φάρμακα σκότωσιν ἐμποιοῦντα ταῖς διανοίαις. Αἱ τοιαῦται ἀνελοῦσαι, εἰ καὶ ἄλλο προελό μεναι, ἄλλο ἐποίησαν, ὅμως διὰ τὸ περίεργον καὶ ἀπηγο ρευμένον τῆς ἐπιτηδεύσεως ἐν τοῖς ἑκουσίως φονεύουσι καταλογίζονται. Καὶ αἱ τοίνυν τὰ ἀμβλωθρίδια διδοῦσαι φάρμακα φονεύτριαί εἰσι καὶ αὐταί, καὶ αἱ δεχόμεναι τὰ ἐμβρυοκτόνα δηλητήρια. Ταῦτα μὲν εἰς τοσοῦτον. 188.9 Ἡ δὲ τοῦ Κυρίου ἀπόφασις, κατὰ μὲν τὴν τῆς ἐννοίας ἀκολουθίαν, ἐξ ἴσου καὶ ἀνδράσι καὶ γυναιξὶν ἁρμόζει, περὶ τοῦ μὴ ἐξεῖναι γάμου ἐξίστασθαι παρεκτὸς λόγου πορνείας. Ἡ δὲ συνήθεια οὐχ οὕτως ἔχει, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ μὲν τῶν γυναικῶν πολλὴν εὑρίσκομεν τὴν ἀκριβολογίαν, τοῦ μὲν Ἀποστόλου λέγοντος ὅτι· «Ὁ κολλώμενος τῇ πόρνῃ ἓν σῶμά ἐστι», τοῦ δὲ Ἱερεμίου ὅτι· «Ἐὰν γένηται γυνὴ ἀνδρὶ ἑτέρῳ, οὐκ ἐπιστρέψει πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα αὐτῆς, ἀλλὰ μιαινομένη μιανθήσεται», καὶ πάλιν· «Ὁ ἔχων μοιχαλίδα ἄφρων καὶ ἀσεβής». Ἡ δὲ συνήθεια καὶ μοιχεύοντας ἄνδρας καὶ ἐν πορνείαις ὄντας κατέχεσθαι ὑπὸ γυναικῶν προστάσσει. Ὥστε ἡ τῷ ἀφειμένῳ ἀνδρὶ συνοικοῦσα οὐκ οἶδα εἰ δύναται μοιχαλὶς χρηματίζειν. Τὸ γὰρ ἔγκλημα ἐνταῦθα τῆς ἀπολυσάσης τὸν ἄνδρα ἅπτεται κατὰ ποίαν αἰτίαν ἀπέστη τοῦ γάμου. Εἴτε γὰρ τυπτομένη μὴ φέρουσα τὰς πληγάς, ὑπομένειν ἐχρῆν μᾶλλον ἢ διαζευχθῆναι τοῦ συνοικοῦντος· εἴτε τὴν εἰς χρήματα ζημίαν μὴ φέρουσα, οὐδὲ αὕτη ἡ πρόφασις ἀξιόλογος. Εἰ δὲ διὰ τὸ ἐν πορνείᾳ αὐτὸν ζῆν, οὐκ ἔχομεν τοῦτο ἐν τῇ συνηθείᾳ τῇ ἐκκλη σιαστικῇ τὸ παρατήρημα, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπίστου ἀνδρὸς χωρίζεσθαι οὐ προσετάχθη γυνή, ἀλλὰ παραμένειν διὰ τὸ ἄδηλον τῆς ἐκβάσεως. «Τί γὰρ οἶδας, γύναι, εἰ τὸν ἄνδρα σώσεις;» Ὥστε ἡ καταλιποῦσα μοιχαλίς, εἰ ἐπ' ἄλλον ἦλθεν ἄνδρα. Ὁ δὲ καταλειφθεὶς σύγγνωστος καὶ ἡ συνοι κοῦσα τῷ τοιούτῳ οὐ κατακρίνεται. Εἰ μέντοι ὁ ἀνὴρ ἀποστὰς τῆς γυναικὸς ἐπ' ἄλλην ἦλθε, καὶ αὐτὸς μοιχός, διότι ποιεῖ αὐτὴν μοιχευθῆναι· καὶ ἡ συνοικοῦσα αὐτῷ μοιχαλίς, διότι ἀλλότριον ἄνδρα πρὸς ἑαυτὴν μετέστησεν. 188.10 Οἱ ὀμνύοντες μὴ καταδέχεσθαι τὴν χειροτονίαν, ἐξομνύμενοι, μὴ ἀναγκαζέσθωσαν ἐπιορκεῖν. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ δοκεῖ τις εἶναι κανὼν ὁ συγχωρῶν τοῖς τοιούτοις, ἀλλὰ πείρᾳ ἐγνώκαμεν ὅτι οὐκ εὐοδοῦνται οἱ παρορκήσαντες. Σκοπεῖν δὲ δεῖ καὶ τὸ εἶδος τοῦ ὅρκου καὶ τὰ ῥήματα καὶ τὴν διάθεσιν ἀφ' ἧς ὀμωμόκασι καὶ τὰς κατὰ λεπτὸν ἐν τοῖς ῥήμασι προσθήκας· ὡς, ἐὰν μηδεμία ᾖ μηδαμόθεν παραμυθία, χρὴ παντελῶς ἐᾶν τοὺς τοιούτους. Τὸ μέντοι κατὰ Σευῆρον πρᾶγμα, ἤτοι τὸν ὑπὸ τούτου χειροτονηθέντα πρεσβύτερον, τοιαύτην τινά μοι δοκεῖ παραμυθίαν ἔχειν, εἰ καί σοι συνδοκεῖ. Τὸν ἀγρὸν ἐκεῖνον τὸν ὑποκείμενον τῇ Μηστίᾳ, ᾧ ἐπεκηρύχθη ὁ ἄνθρωπος, κέλευσον Οὐασόδοις ὑποτελεῖν. Οὕτω γὰρ κἀκεῖνος οὐ παρορκήσει μὴ ἀναχω ρῶν τοῦ τόπου, καὶ ὁ Λογγῖνος ἔχων τὸν Κυριακὸν μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ οὐκ ἐρημώσει τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, οὐδὲ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχὴν διὰ τῆς ἀργίας καταδικάσει. Καὶ ἡμεῖς δόξομεν μὴ παρὰ κανόνας ποιεῖν τι, συμπεριφερόμενοι τῷ Κυριακῷ ὀμόσαντι μὲν συμπαραμένειν Μινδανοῖς, καταδεξαμένῳ δὲ τὴν μετάθεσιν. Ἡ γὰρ ἐπάνοδος φυλακὴ ἔσται τοῦ ὅρκου. Τὸ δὲ εἶξαι αὐτὸν τῇ οἰκονομίᾳ εἰς ἐπιορκίαν αὐτῷ οὐ λογισθήσεται, διὰ τὸ μὴ προσκεῖσθαι τῷ ὅρκῳ μηδὲ πρὸς βραχὺ ἀναχωρήσειν Μινδάνων, ἀλλὰ παραμε νεῖν εἰς τὸ ἐφεξῆς.