Canons of the VII Ecumenical Councils

Interpretation.

The present Canon prescribes that all monasteries that have once been established and consecrated with the consent and permission and approval of the Bishop having jurisdiction of that particular region in which they are situated (as we have previously asserted in connection with c. IV of the present Council, q.v.), they are to remain monasteries forever, and henceforth no more to be converted into common and mundane haunts of vice or the like. All real and personal property belonging to them must likewise be kept inalienable and undiminished. All persons who, though not themselves converting them into mundane resorts, nor removing any of their property, give permission to others to do so, are to be held responsible for their acts and liable to the penalties provided by the Canons. But what are these penalties? They are the ones mentioned by the 7th Ec. C. in its c. XIII, wherein it deposes the clergymen from office, and excommunicates those laymen and monks who have seized monasteries and bishoprics, and have converted them into common resorts and refuse to return them in order to let them become sacred again just as they were formerly.

    Canon XLIX of the 6th not only commands that monasteries are not to be permitted to become common and mundane habitations, but also that they are not to be turned over to seculars by anyone, in order, that is to say, that they may be protected and managed. Canon XII of the 7th also prohibits any abbot from alienating the monasteries’ own works and effects. Canon XIX of the same Council will not allow a monk to take back things which he has given to his monastery if he departs of his own accord. And c. II of Cyril specifies that jewels and other valuable articles and real estate are to remain inalienable from the churches to which they belong.[107]

Notes

[107] Book XI of the Basilican Ordinances, in Title VIII, Ordinance 51 (in Photius, Title II, ch. 1) asserts that sacred things have a divine right and are not actually owned by anyone. A sacred thing is anything that has been publicly consecrated. And again, in Ordinance 10, Title I, it is stated that a sacred thing is that which has been rightly and through a priest consecrated to God, as, temples and vessels. That which, on the other hand, one makes sacred by his own authority and arbitrary will is not really sacred. Even if the (building called the) temple of such a sacred temple or sacred object should fall to the ground, the place itself remains sacred and no one, according to Armenopoulos (Book    Title XI), can actually own it. For whatever has once been made sacred never ceases being sacred thereafter. Notwithstanding that Ordinance 36, in Book XI, Title VII, says that when sacred things are “enslaved” by enemies at war, they cease to be sacred, just as a free person also ceases under like circumstances to be free, yet after the period of enslavement in question, they become sacred again. By this I mean that they merely cease being actually sacred, but they do not also cease being potentially sacred: according to that authority they are always and everlastingly sacred, and this is especially so if they happen to be sacred and movable things, which indeed even after being enslaved may in many instances manifest the inherent power of their holiness even by evincing an energetic action, just as was shown by the Ark of God when it was captured by the Philistines and knocked down their idols, and filled their lands with rats, and even inflicted wounds upon their fundaments (Sam. I, ch. 4), as well as by the sacred vessels which were captured by the Babylonians and removed from the Temple of Jerusalem, and which actually killed Belshazzar (Dan. ch. 5) because he treated them as though they were common and unsacred vessels. Nevertheless and in spite of all these facts, that which Basil the Great says (see his Ethic 30) is as true as it is fearful. For he asserts that anything that has been consecrated to the name of God deserves honor as something holy as long as it serves the purpose of keeping God’s will; which amounts to the same thing as saying that it is sacred if the priests worshiping Him therein keep His will. One could not own sacred things by eating them, even though he fed himself on them for many years, according to Title VI of Ordinance 10. We cannot claim any title to sacred things as our own; that is to say, with a view to gaining ownership of them as property — according to Ordinance 13, Book VI, Title I. If in the middle between two common and unsacred localities there is situated a locality which is sacred, there can be no crossing or thoroughfare from the sacred locality to the unsacred. According to Ordinance 14 title I one is prohibited from building on any spot that is sacred, according to the fourth Institute (or introduction to the laws), Title XV. No one can sell, or exchange, or give away, or mortgage a monastery wherein there has been established a sacrificial altar and wherein sacred services have been held and monastic austerity of life has been practiced. If any such an act is done, it is void and invalid; and if it has been sold, the seller shall lose even the price he received for it, as well as the monastery itself or the property of the monastery which he sold; and the purchaser likewise shall lose also the price which he paid, and the monastery which he bought. The price paid shall be turned over to the monasteries of the region in question and to the churches of the region in question, according to the first Ordinance of Title II of the Novels (in Photius, Title XI, ch. 1). The second Ordinance of Title II of the Novels (Photius, Title X, ch. 1), as well as Armenopoulos (Book 3, Title 4), commands that stewards and trustees and other governing officers of churches and of religious houses, and chartularians, and their parents and children, are warned against giving anyone anything ecclesiastical to plant or to rent or to mortgage or to pawn, and taking money in consideration thereof; because those who plant or rent or hold a mortgage on it or have taken it in pledge will lose it and the money which they gave therefor, and the expense they went to in planting it. Accordingly, all the foregoing persons that gave anything, not only will lose whatever price they paid for it, but will also suffer damages to the amount of the expenses incurred by those who undertook to plant it; and this amount shall be given to the divine house and temple (or church) whose property the thing in question was. The third Introduction, in Titles IX and XXIII, ordains that no one can buy a sacred temple (Note of Translator. — The reader should bear in mind that “temple” here, as elsewhere, means “church building,” as distinguished from the church, or institution, itself; though in common parlance no such distinction is usually made), knowing that it is a sacred temple. If, however, he has been deceived into buying as private property, he has a right to bring suit against the one who deceived him and sold it to him. If the temple falls down, the spot on which it stood does not become unsacred. Hence neither can it be sold, according to Ordinance 73 of the first Title (in Photius, Title II, ch. 1).