Church discipline and penance in the early church

Excommunication, public penance, readmission of sinners, and church courts. Part of The church.

Didache 15.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Correct one another peacefully; shun the unrepentant.
1 Clement 56.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Pray for the offenders to yield to God's will.
1 Clement 56.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Accept correction; it unites us to God's will.
1 Clement 56.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God disciplines but does not destroy.
1 Clement 56.16Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God, a good Father, disciplines us for our good.
1 Clement 57.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The ringleaders must submit to the presbyters and repent.
Epistle of the Apostles 48Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ gives the rule for correcting a brother who sins: alone, then before two or three, and finally treating him as an outsider.
Diatessaron, section 27Tatian · ca. 160-180
Against Heresies 4.27.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The same God who punished Israel’s sinners judges Christians: the sexually immoral, idolaters, and the unjust will not inherit the kingdom, and he will avenge his elect.
On Repentance 9Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The second repentance must be shown outwardly in exomologesis, public confession with sackcloth, ashes, fasting, weeping, and kneeling before the presbyters and the faithful, through which God pardons.
On Repentance 10Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Many avoid public penance out of shame, but among fellow Christians the sinner is before Christ himself, who prays for him; hiding sin from men does not hide it from God.
To His Wife 2.3Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Marrying a pagan is sexual sin, a violation of the body bought by Christ's blood, and daily exposure to pagan ways wears faith away.
Didascalia 2.8–9Anonymous · first half of the third century · The falsely slandered are blessed, but a Christian convicted of wrongdoing is a hypocrite, and the bishop must keep apart from him.
Didascalia 2.10–12Anonymous · first half of the third century · A partial bishop who tolerates sinners corrupts the flock, but a pure clergy and flock move the sinner to shame and repentance.
Didascalia 2.13 (Latin)Anonymous · first half of the third century · The bishop sits in the church with authority to judge sinners in God's place, as one given the power to bind.
Didascalia 2.13 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.14 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.15 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.16Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.17Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.20Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.21 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.21 (Latin)Anonymous · first half of the third century · A bishop who expels sinners and refuses to receive them back when they repent kills them forever, since Christ commands forgiveness.
Didascalia 2.24Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.38Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.39Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.40Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.41Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.42Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.43Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.46Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.47Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.49Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.50Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 3.8 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 6.14 (Latin)Anonymous · first half of the third century · The apostles, gathered in Jerusalem, write this Teaching and decree that the penitent be kept in the church and the unrepentant heretics be cast out and shunned.
Pistis Sophia 105Anonymous · 3rd century
On Dice-Players 4Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Paul and the teaching of the apostles forbid even eating with sinning brothers, so much more must such sinners be kept from the Eucharist.
On Modesty 1Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Tertullian laments the decay of modesty and attacks a bishop's edict forgiving adultery and sexual immorality after penance, defending his New Prophecy view that such sins, like second marriage, exclude from the church.
On Modesty 3Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Penance for irremissible sins is not in vain: though the church gives no peace, it seeks pardon from God alone and may obtain it from him.
On Modesty 7Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · The parables of the lost sheep and coin concern heathen sinners, and even if applied to Christians they fit lesser sins, not adultery, whose guilty are counted as dead and expelled.
On Modesty 13Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Tertullian argues that 2 Corinthians 2 does not pardon the incestuous man of 1 Corinthians 5, mocks the public penance of adulterers in the bishop's church, and reads “destruction of the flesh” as final exclusion.
On Modesty 14Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Tertullian argues from the severe tone of 1 Corinthians that the man forgiven in 2 Corinthians was one of those merely rebuked, not the incestuous man whom Paul condemned.
On Modesty 15Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · The rest of 2 Corinthians, with its calls to holiness and separation from impurity, shows Paul could not have restored the incestuous man to communion.
On Modesty 18Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Old Testament and apostolic texts forbid communion with the sexually immoral without any time limit; God's mercy to the repentant applies to those before baptism, while after baptism only lighter sins can be pardoned by the bishop and graver ones by God alone.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.21Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus says Callistus's rule drew people with bad consciences and excommunicates, and that he refused to depose bishops even for mortal sin.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 35, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen rebukes those who exclude the twice-married from communion, allows second marriage as better than burning though not good in itself, and on 1 Cor 7:10–12 holds that a husband must not keep a wife who has committed sexual immorality, while the one who separates must remain unmarried or be reconciled.
Homilies on Ezekiel 3.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · God answers each sinner according to his disease, like a physician; one who persists is cut off from his people, and return after the final exclusion is very hard.
Homilies on Ezekiel 10.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · After sin, the second remedy is shame and the humble acceptance of disgrace, as with a deposed cleric who submits instead of causing schism; God restores those who accept his judgment.
Homilies on Ezekiel 12.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · The sinner falls under the devil’s covenant of curse; but punishment accepted patiently, like the handing over to Satan in 1 Cor 5:5, saves the spirit, while seeking escape through “Egypt” brings ruin.
Homilies on Joshua 7.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Achan’s sin, which brought wrath on all Israel, warns church leaders that sparing an unrepentant sinner endangers the whole church; after repeated warnings he must be cut off, even if he is a presbyter.
Homilies on Joshua 21.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Jebusites who remained in Jerusalem are the sinners who remain in the church, which cannot be wholly purified on earth; those whose sins are manifest are to be expelled, but no one whose sin is hidden, lest the wheat be uprooted with the tares.
Homilies on Joshua 21.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Jebusites, “tramplers,” are those who learn the church’s mysteries and then turn against it; the Canaanites left in Ephraim are the unstable who trouble the fruitful; inwardly, both are evil and wandering thoughts that must be driven out of the heart daily.
Homilies on Judges 2.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God hands sinners over to the devil both through the church's excommunication and by withdrawing from a soul enslaved to vice, leaving it empty for evil spirits.
Homilies on Leviticus 3.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The law that one who knows of a sin and stays silent shares its guilt agrees with the Gospel order of private rebuke, witnesses, and the church; the scribes who keep silent about the oath of Ps 110 share Israel's sin.
Homilies on Leviticus 8.10Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The leper's unsewn garments and bare head signify open confession of sin, his covered mouth the loss of authority to teach; the rite of the two birds, cedar, scarlet, hyssop, water, and blood signifies purification through Christ's cross and the water and blood from his side, also in penance.
Homilies on Leviticus 12.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The soul 'cast out' is one guilty of mortal sin, whether or not the bishop excludes it; the 'defiled' soul has sinned in thought or lesser ways; Christ joins to himself only a pure soul.
Homilies on Leviticus 14.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The blasphemer of mixed descent figures the heretic who keeps the letter of Scripture but rejects its spiritual sense and so curses the Creator; slander against God or neighbour excludes from the kingdom.
Homilies on Leviticus 14.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen consoles habitual slanderers with the many degrees of blessedness and the graded fire that tests wood, hay, and stubble, but urges them to reform; one 'goes out' of the church by sin, not by an unjust sentence.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 6.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · As God gave medicines for the body, he gave Scripture as medicine for the soul, with Christ as chief physician and the Church’s ministers as physicians; Psalm 37 (38) teaches the sinner to accept rebuke from teachers, angels, and the law rather than God’s own anger, to let the arrows of God’s word pierce him to repentance, and to let the mind of the flesh be put to death.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 7.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Confession relieves the soul as vomiting relieves the stomach; one should choose a wise and merciful “physician” to confess to, who will judge whether public confession before the Church is needed; and no one should approach the Eucharist carelessly while conscious of sin.
Homilies on Jeremiah 12.3Origen · ca. 240 · God spares no sinner, not even priests; presbyters and deacons who sin will be punished, and sinners are scattered from one another as a discipline, while the blessed are gathered together.
Homilies on Jeremiah 12.5Origen · ca. 240 · Against heretics who call the Creator cruel, Origen compares God to a judge who does not pardon a murderer and a surgeon who must cut: punishment, including in church discipline, serves the good of the whole.
Homilies on Jeremiah 14.14Origen · ca. 240 · To pray for a share with the prophets and apostles is to ask to suffer as they did for rebuking sin; Origen alludes to a recent case of church discipline and warns his hearers not to listen to the slanders of the excommunicated.
Homilies on Jeremiah 19.14Origen · ca. 240 · Pashhur (“Blackness of mouth”) is the false interpreter who throws Scripture's prophetic words into a dungeon; sinners, even in the church, are handed over to the “king of Babylon,” the devil, who takes away all the labors and honor of those who fall after long struggle.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.8Origen · ca. 240 · Jeremiah's resolve to stop prophesying was a sin, at once burned away by God's word like fire in his heart; that inner fire of repentance, which Christ kindles, is better than any punishment, and the sinner who grieves long over his sin has hope, unlike the one who does not care.
Instructions 2.8Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Penitents should pray, stay close to the church, and do public penance; Commodian admits he was once one of them.
Against Celsus 3.51Origen · ca. 248 · Unlike philosophers who preach to anyone, Christians examine and instruct inquirers before admitting them, expel the immoral, readmit the penitent only after a long probation, and bar the lapsed from church office.
Against Celsus 5.63Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says Christian sects curse and hate one another; true followers of Jesus bless those who revile them, try to win back those in error, and only avoid a persistent heretic, as Paul commands.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 14Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The scribes and Pharisees shut the kingdom by opposing Christ and his followers, and bad Christian teachers and clergy do the same by their example, greed, and unjust excommunications.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 89Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Jesus left the place of the Passover and chose a pure place to pray before his betrayal; Origen discusses whether the place of prayer matters, defends the church's practice of excluding notorious sinners from common prayer, and warns against despising others in pride.
Commentary on Matthew 12.14Origen · ca. 246–248 · The keys of the kingdom, one for each virtue, are given to whoever is not overcome by the gates of Hades; bishops who claim Peter’s power to bind and loose judge soundly only if they have Peter’s works and are not themselves bound by sin.
Commentary on Matthew 13.30Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen discusses whether Matthew's steps of reproof apply to all sins or only lesser ones, notes that the Gospel leaves undecided the fate of one who does not listen, and urges repentance after any number of sins.
Commentary on Matthew 13.31Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen applies “whatever you bind on earth” to those who admonish a sinner three times, and argues that Peter's power of the keys extends to all the heavens while theirs extends to one.
Letter 3.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Deacons, appointed by the apostles, must respect bishops, whom the Lord chose; the insolent deacon must do penance or be deposed or excluded, though patience is preferred.
Letter 4.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The offending clergy are rightly excluded; virgins found intact may return, those found corrupted must do full penance, and the obstinate are cast out, since there is no salvation outside the church.
Letter 15.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian warns the martyrs that certain presbyters are admitting the lapsed to the Eucharist on the martyrs' recommendation without penance, confession, or the laying on of hands.
Letter 16.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Denying Christ is the gravest sin; presbyters who give the lapsed communion before penance, confession, and the laying on of hands deceive them and profane the Eucharist.
Letter 17.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Some presbyters are giving the lapsed communion without the due order of penance, confession, and the bishop's laying on of hands, which applies even to lesser sins.
Letter 18.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Because summer brings illness, the dying who hold martyrs' certificates may confess before a presbyter, or even a deacon, receive the laying on of hands, and die in peace with the church.
Letter 19.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The dying with martyrs' certificates may be reconciled; the rest must wait for a general council after peace returns, or, if impatient, may confess Christ now and win the martyr's crown.
Letter 22.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Lucian explains that the martyr Paulus charged him to give peace in his name, and that the martyrs, many starved to death in prison, have granted peace to all; the sisters should receive it after confession before the bishop.
Letter 30.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Those who obtained certificates or had themselves registered as having sacrificed have denied Christ just as those who sacrificed; hasty readmission without penance is not healing but killing.
Letter 30.7Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · God is both merciful and just; until Rome has a bishop, the lapsed must wait, except the truly penitent who are dying, who may be helped with caution.
Letter 34.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian approves the excommunication of the presbyter Gaius of Dida and his deacon, who kept giving the lapsed communion despite warnings.
Letter 36.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The Roman clergy share Cyprian's grief at the lapsed who claim peace as already theirs; no privilege can grant communion if it contradicts the gospel.
Letter 36.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Setting the martyrs against the gospel would undo both; in fact the martyrs, by referring the lapsed to the bishop rather than admitting them themselves, kept both modesty and truth.
Letter 41.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Felicissimus has formed a faction; he is excluded from communion, also on a charge of adultery, and anyone who joins him, including Augendus, cuts himself off from the church.
Letter 49.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Before presbyters, five bishops, and the people, the returning confessors acknowledge Cornelius as the one bishop and are received back; Maximus resumes his rank as presbyter.
Letter 55.13Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Those reconciled when near death are not to be denied peace if they recover; and those who took certificates are not to be ranked with those who sacrificed, whose cases also differ widely.
Letter 55.23Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · If an earthly father welcomes a reformed son, how much more God; but those who did no penance until death threatened are not to be reconciled on their deathbed.
Letter 57.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The African council tells Cornelius that, with a new persecution approaching, it has decided to reconcile at once all lapsed who have persevered in penance, so that they can be armed for the struggle.
Letter 57.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Peace is given not to apostates or schismatics but to penitents ready to fight; if some deceive, God judges the heart, and it is better that none who will be martyrs be passed over.
Letter 59.15Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Fortunatus's following is dwindling as many return; Cyprian weighs each case carefully and must struggle to persuade his people to accept even the unworthy, some of whom have proved false.
Letter 59.16Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Felicissimus's companions avoid Carthage because of the charges against them; yet the church there is open to any who return with penance, and Cyprian is almost too lenient in receiving them.
Letter 3Anonymous · uncertain · A spurious synodal letter rules that clergy who handed over the Scriptures in persecution (traditores) may not serve at the altar, while those who only pretended to do so are pardoned and those who surrendered them unasked are reduced to lay communion.
On the Lapsed 15Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian attacks those who readmit the lapsed to communion without penance, a false peace that lets them receive the Lord's body with hands still defiled by idol sacrifice.
On the Lapsed 16Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Easy readmission of the lapsed before penance and reconciliation is not peace but a new persecution by the devil, which robs them of true repentance; only the Lord can show mercy.
Canonical Epistle, canon 2Gregory Thaumaturgus · ca. 254–264 · Those who profited from the invasion by plunder are to be excommunicated, lest God's wrath fall on the whole people and on the bishops who fail to act.
Canonical Epistle, canon 7Gregory Thaumaturgus · ca. 254–264 · Christians who joined the invaders and killed or betrayed their neighbours are excluded even from the hearers until a synod decides their case.
Canonical Epistle, canon 8Gregory Thaumaturgus · ca. 254–264 · Those who broke into others' houses during the invasion are excluded from the hearers if convicted, but placed among the kneelers if they confess and make restitution.
Canonical Epistle, canon 9Gregory Thaumaturgus · ca. 254–264 · Those who kept things the barbarians left behind are placed among the kneelers if convicted, but admitted to the prayers if they confess and give them back.
Canonical Epistle, canon 11Gregory Thaumaturgus · ca. 254–264 · A description of the four grades of public penance (weeping, hearing, kneeling, standing together) and the final restoration to communion.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 2.4Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The letter to Thyatira rebukes those who grant forbidden reconciliation and heed new prophecies, and promises the conquerors the first resurrection.
Lepr. 6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Each kind of leprosy is a vice; the sinner must show his sore to Christ in prayer and, if it persists, confess to the bishop, who may separate him from communion, examine him, and cast out the impenitent.
Lepr. 9Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · In the law of leprous garments the warp is the mind, the woof the soul, and the skin the body; a sin that persists after repentance and confession to the bishop is a lasting leprosy that leads to Gehenna.
Church History 4.23.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius wrote to Amastris and Pontus with scriptural exposition, much counsel on marriage and chastity, and a command to receive back all who repent of sin or heresy.
Church History 5.24.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Victor of Rome tried to excommunicate all the churches of Asia.
Church History 5.28.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Victor himself excommunicated Theodotus the cobbler, the first to call Christ a mere man.
Church History 6.34.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Report has it that the emperor Philip, a Christian, was made to do public penance before joining the Easter vigil.
Church History 7.30.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The synod deposed Paul, appointed Domnus, and asked the churches to be in communion with him.
Divine Institutes 4.30.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The true church is the one that has confession and penance for sin.
Canon 5Anonymous · 325 · Excommunications by one bishop are binding on others but are to be reviewed at provincial synods held twice a year.
Book 3, lines 421–444Juvencus · ca. 330 · Church discipline in stages; Christ present where two or three gather; forgiving without limit; the unforgiving servant begins.
Demonstration 7.2Aphrahat · 337-345 · Repentance is the medicine for those wounded in the spiritual contest; the church's physicians must apply it, since God does not reject penitents.
Demonstration 7.3Aphrahat · 337-345 · One struck by Satan should confess and seek repentance rather than hide the wound, which otherwise festers beyond healing.
Demonstration 7.4Aphrahat · 337-345 · Those who administer penance must give it freely and keep confessed sins confidential, so as not to expose the church to its enemies.
Demonstration 7.10Aphrahat · 337-345 · Ezekiel and Jeremiah show that God warns the righteous and offers hope to sinners who turn; those who hold the keys must open the doors to penitents gently.
Demonstration 7.25Aphrahat · 337-345 · Some ascetics who fall refuse to confess, and some clergy refuse repentance to those who do; Aphrahat urges the clergy to grant it and leave the final separation to the Lord.
Demonstration 14.44Aphrahat · 337-345 · Leaders entrusted with the power to bind and loose have become jailers, excommunicating those who offend them while freeing those who flatter them, instead of following Christ's way of correction and forgiveness.
Canon 13Anonymous · 343 or 347 · A bishop must not give communion to a cleric whom he knows his own bishop has excommunicated.
Canon 16Anonymous · 343 or 347 · A bishop must not admit to communion a cleric whom he knows his own bishop has excommunicated.
Canon 17Anonymous · 343 or 347 · A presbyter or deacon expelled by an angry bishop may appeal to neighboring bishops, but no one may admit him to communion before the hearing.
Historical Fragments 1.1.4.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Gauls excommunicate Auxentius, Ursacius, Valens, Gaius, Megasius, and Justinus.
Historical Fragments 1.1.4.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Gauls condemn the appended blasphemies and the intruded bishops, and decree deposition for any Gallic bishop who resists.
Historical Fragments 1.1.4.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · Saturninus of Arles is excommunicated by all the Gallic bishops; end of the letter of the council of Paris.
Historical Fragments 1.4.1.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Easterners ask all bishops to refuse communion to Marcellus and his followers.
Historical Fragments 1.4.1.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The eighty Eastern bishops refused communion with the Westerners who kept the condemned bishops.
Historical Fragments 1.4.1.24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Easterners forbid communion with Ossius, Protogenes, Athanasius, Marcellus, Asclepas, Paul, and Julius.
Historical Fragments 2.3.1.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The letter declares Athanasius excluded from the communion of the Roman church.
Defence against the Arians 49Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · The synod declares Athanasius, Marcellus, and Asclepas innocent, rejects the bishops intruded into their sees, deposes and excommunicates the Arian leaders, and asks all bishops to sign.
On Saint Athanasius 2.13Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer rejects the emperor's appeal to Paul's judgment of the incestuous Corinthian made in absence, since Paul acted on faithful witnesses and with the church assembled, and recalls that the legates offered to go and hear Athanasius in Alexandria.
On Saint Athanasius 2.18Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer argues that the emperor ignored Christ's procedure for correcting a brother, that heretics cannot be witnesses against a catholic bishop, and recalls that the murder charge against Athanasius had already failed at Serdica.
On Not Agreeing with Heretics 11Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · From Paul's commands to expel the incestuous man and to shun immoral brothers, Lucifer argues that heresy is spiritual sexual immorality and that the church must avoid the Arians.
Letter 22Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · A list of scriptural rules for monks: speech, obedience, work, poverty, correction of a sinning brother, and forgiveness.
Letter 55Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Fragment: Basil orders an aged presbyter to send away the woman living in his house, to avoid scandal, on pain of suspension.
Letters 60, 61Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil accepts his uncle Gregory's letter and asks him to set a meeting; a second letter supports Athanasius's excommunication of the governor of Libya, a Cappadocian.
Letter 170Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil calls the runaway deacon Glycerius to return, promising fatherly pardon and warning of deposition.
Letter 217Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil's third canonical letter to Amphilochius: after personal news, canons 51–84 set the penitential periods for murder, adultery, fornication, incest, perjury, sorcery, apostasy, and other sins, and stress that the fruits of repentance, not time alone, decide.
Letter 250Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells Patrophilus that peace with men who have taken in heretical bishops at Sebaste is no real peace, and urges him to rebuke openly those who do not walk according to the truth of the Gospel.
Letter 270Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil orders that a girl carried off by force be returned to her parents, that her abductor be excommunicated, and that his accomplices and the village that sheltered her be excluded from the prayers.
Letter 286Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells a court official that thieves caught stealing poor people's clothes at a church festival should be corrected by the Church rather than by the courts, though he leaves him free to refer the case to the count.
Letter 287Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil orders that a slippery offender who evades church judgment be excommunicated with his household, in the hope that he will be ashamed.
Letter 288Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil excommunicates an unrepentant offender after the three steps of Matt 18:15–17, and orders the village to shun him in everyday dealings.
Letter 289Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil reports the complaint of a woman vowed to continence who has been publicly slandered by a man he has already excommunicated, and argues that such offenders should not be rescued from the civil authorities.
On the Synods 4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 358–359 · The Gauls keep communion only among the faithful and refuse to share in the exile of orthodox bishops by silent assent.
On the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia 12Athanasius of Alexandria · 359 (additions 361) · At Seleucia the majority accepted Nicaea except for “of the same essence,” while Acacius’s small party rejected it; the majority deposed and excommunicated the Acacians.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 52Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's fifty-second rule: Christians must grieve over sinners, rebuke them, keep company with them only to call them to repentance, and treat the obstinate as outsiders.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 72Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's seventy-second rule, on hearers: they are to test teachers by the Scriptures or by the fruits of the Spirit, receive true teachers as the Lord, and accept the commandments and reproof as the way to life.
Letter 145Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory continues: God himself punishes slowly and gives room for amendment, so the bishop should pardon the offenders for the sake of the poor, the monks and the virgins who plead for them.
Letter 271Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory tells a bishop that George, who broke a written oath, has been brought to repentance, and asks him to impose a penance whose length matches his compunction.
To Constantius 2.2Hilary of Poitiers · 360 · Hilary offers to prove the emperor was deceived, accepting lay penance if he is found guilty.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.16.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · A soul empty of God is occupied by the devil; Paul handed notorious sinners over to Satan, as those cast out of the church are handed to his power.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 1.5Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian argues from the prophets, the Psalms, David, Nebuchadnezzar, the parables, the letters to the seven churches, and Paul that God offers penance to the baptized who sin.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.12Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian distinguishes private forgiveness of a brother from the church’s power to loose any sin, arguing from Matt 18.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.17Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian argues that the commands to cut off the offending hand and to remove the evil person concern those who persist in sin and lead others astray, not penitents.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.18Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian argues that Paul’s handing over of the incestuous man to Satan was for his amendment, excluded only him, and was followed by his forgiveness in 2 Corinthians.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.19Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian turns the Novatian charges of laxity back on them, pointing to the disreputable men they received, and reads “lay hands hastily on no one” as allowing reconciliation after penance.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 2Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian asks to be heard in love, says his sermon on penance concerns the whole church, and sets out its four parts.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 10Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian rebukes penitents who live in luxury and describes the works of public penance: weeping before the church, squalid clothing, fasting, prayer, almsgiving, and abstaining from baths and banquets.
Homilies 14.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Men and women danced together drunk, so that girls lost their virginity and men committed adultery by looking; Basil prescribes fasting, psalms, tears and almsgiving, and tells the sober to separate from the unrepentant.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 2.21Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The Donatists exorcized Catholics, washed the walls of churches, and degraded Catholic clergy to penitents, which Optatus calls a living murder foretold in the Psalms.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 2.24Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · By imposing penance on Catholics of every rank, the Donatists killed their honors and fulfilled Ezekiel's woe on those who overturn souls.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 2.26Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The Donatists imposed penance on whole Catholic congregations, innocent women and children included, with arbitrary lengths, fulfilling Ezekiel's woe on the daughters of Israel.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 7.7Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Even if Macarius were guilty, the bishops could not condemn him without an accuser, for God himself, though he knew Cain's crime, questioned him and let Abel's blood accuse him.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The church shared the guilt by tolerating a public sin; only one without power or proof is excused, as Christ did not expel the unaccused Judas.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The incestuous man is to be expelled, 'handed to Satan' in the lust of the flesh, so that he may repent and so that the Holy Spirit is not lost to the whole church.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:9–10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul clarifies his earlier letter: the ban on association applies to immoral fellow believers, not to outsiders.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers must not even eat with an immoral fellow believer, though they may eat with unbelievers.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The bishop judges only church members, who are to be shunned at table and sacrament until they amend.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers judge fellow members by discerning whom to avoid, while outsiders are left to God's judgment.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 1:18–20Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Timothy, ordained a bishop according to prophecy, must keep faith and a good conscience; Hymenaeus and Alexander, who blasphemed, were sentenced by Paul and handed to Satan to be punished in body so as to be corrected.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 2:8–9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul asks the Corinthians to show obedience by receiving the repentant brother back into communion.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 2:10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul's forgiveness of the offender, given in the person of Christ, is ratified by Christ, and the Corinthians should forgive likewise.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 12:21Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul fears mourning the unrepentant; that some had repented of sexual sin refutes Novatian's denial of penance and readmission for such sinners.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 3:6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers are to keep apart from disorderly brothers so that these may recognize their error.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 3:12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The idle are to work quietly; the generous must keep doing good; and the disobedient are to be shunned without insult and admonished as brothers until they amend.
Epigram 48Damasus I of Rome · 366–384 · Damasus's epigram on Marcellus, bishop of Rome, who required penance of the lapsed and was exiled by the tyrant after the resulting strife.
Question 102, section 9Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · In baptism God forgives all sins freely without penance; sins committed afterward can still be forgiven, but through the groans and tears of penance.
Question 102, section 17Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · From 2 Cor 12:21 Ambrosiaster argues that penance for sexual sin is completed in this life and that those who complete it are readmitted to communion.
Question 102, section 18Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · In the letter to Pergamum the risen Christ commands penance for idolatry and sexual immorality, so those sins can be repented of within the church.
Question 102, section 20Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The letter to Thyatira refutes Novatian twice: it offers penance for idolatry, and it shows that the wicked and the good coexist in one church without the good being defiled.
Question 102, section 23Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Novatian’s claim that he allows penance for idolatry but leaves forgiveness to God is a deception, since he holds that such a sin can never be forgiven.
Question 102, section 24Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Peter’s guarded answer to Simon Magus concerned deliberate malice; those who sin from error or under pressure can be forgiven through penance, which the church is authorized to grant.
Letter to Rufinianus 1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370–373 · Athanasius tells Rufinianus that the councils decided to pardon clergy who had yielded to force without embracing Arianism and to let them keep their rank, but to admit the leaders of the heresy only as laymen.
Letter 55.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers that a woman who left an adulterous husband and married another while he lives is an adulteress and cannot be admitted to communion without penance.
Letter 55.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome requires the woman to do penance and cease relations with her second partner in order to receive communion, and holds that, by Deuteronomy 24, she cannot return to her first husband.
Letter 77.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes the humility and grief of Fabiola's penance, which she bore as though she had committed adultery.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.1.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius reports that Marcion, a bishop's son, seduced a virgin and was excommunicated by his father.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.1.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcion's father refused to readmit him to penance.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.5.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The fallen are to be restored gently.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.8.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop must expel convicted sinners who do not reform.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.9.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Scripture commands the removal of the wicked from the community.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.10.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · A bishop who spares the guilty, like Saul and Eli, profanes the church and scandalizes the young and the catechumens.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.11.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop has authority to judge sinners, by Christ’s word on binding and loosing.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.13.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop should first condemn the guilty, then receive the penitent with mercy.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.14.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The penitent must be received, against rigorists who refuse all contact with sinners.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.14.10Anonymous · ca. 380 · Harsh rigorists are not to be followed; the church must heal sinners, as God wills that none of the little ones perish.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.15.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Pushing away a sinner who is slipping is like drowning one’s brother; one must give him a hand.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.16.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop puts the sinner out of the church; the deacons then intercede for him, as Christ prayed for sinners.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.16.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The penitent is examined, given weeks of fasting in proportion to his sin, and sent away to pray in humility.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.16.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Penitents are excluded for a time proportionate to their sin and then received.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.17.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Unrebuked sin spreads like leaven or disease, so the lawless must be separated from the church.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.18.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop holds authority to bind and loose and will answer for more than others.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.18.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop must restore penitents with the laying on of hands and rouse the negligent.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.20.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop must bind up those broken by sin and bring back the excommunicated into the flock.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.20.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop has authority to forgive and restore sinners to the church, and must heal them as a physician and shepherd them gently.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.38.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · If the accused will not heed private and then witnessed rebuke, he is brought before the church and, if obstinate, excluded.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.38.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The excluded may be received back upon repentance.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.39.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The unrepentant sinner is treated as an outsider.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.39.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Penitents, like catechumens, may hear the readings but must leave before the prayers until they show the fruit of repentance.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.40.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · One who has fallen once or twice must not be shunned, since Christ ate with sinners.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.41.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The penitent who shows fruit of repentance is received back to the prayers, like the prodigal son.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.41.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · Only when all remedies fail, and after consultation, is the incurable member cut off.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.43.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A repeat troublemaker is to be expelled permanently, since he stains the body of Christ.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.43.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · As surgeons remove superfluous limbs, shepherds must remove a member who disrupts the church.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.46.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · In disputes between brothers the guilty party is rebuked and excluded until he repents.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.47.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Church courts meet on Mondays so that disputes can be settled before Sunday.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.48.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Penalties must fit the offence: threats, almsgiving, fasting or exclusion.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The deacon leads prayer for the penitents.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer that the penitents be forgiven and restored.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer that the penitents may be restored to communion and eternal life.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.28.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The presbyter blesses and excommunicates but does not ordain or depose.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.28.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · A deacon may excommunicate the lower clergy when no presbyter is present.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.28.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · The lower clergy may not excommunicate.
Canonical Letter, Migne PG 45:223Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390 · Gregory compares penance to medicine and divides the soul into reasoning, desiring and spirited parts, describing the right action and the vice of the reasoning part and the right action of the desire.
Canonical Letter, Migne PG 45:225Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390 · Gregory describes the right actions and failings of the desire and of the spirit, then sets lifelong penance for willing apostasy and a fixed term for those who denied under torture, and begins on those who consult sorcerers.
Canonical Letter, Migne PG 45:227Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390 · Gregory distinguishes apostasy to sorcery from deceived recourse to it, then defines sexual immorality and adultery: there is one lawful union, and adultery, which wrongs another, receives double the penance.
Canonical Letter, Migne PG 45:229Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390 · Gregory sets nine years of graded penance for sexual immorality, which the bishop may shorten for earnest penitents, double that for adultery and sins against nature, and begins on murder, distinguishing voluntary from involuntary.
Canonical Letter, Migne PG 45:231Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390 · Gregory sets twenty-seven years of graded penance for voluntary murder and nine for involuntary, both shortenable, allows communion to the dying, and turns to covetousness, which the Fathers left without penalty.
Canonical Letter, Migne PG 45:233Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390 · Gregory notes that covetousness goes unpunished and is common among clergy, then sets penance for robbery (as for murder) and for secret theft (almsgiving or labour), and distinguishes pardonable from unpardonable grave-robbing.
Canonical Letter, Migne PG 45:235Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390 · Gregory finishes grave-robbing, notes that sacrilege, stoned in the Law, receives less penance than adultery, insists that the penitent's disposition matters more than time, and closes the letter.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 46Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Clergy should use church courts, not public ones, judge justly, and require two or three witnesses.
Canon 6Anonymous · 381–382 · Private complaints against a bishop may be brought by anyone, but ecclesiastical charges only by orthodox accusers in good standing, first before the provincial bishops and then a synod of the diocese, under penalty for false accusation.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 15Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · Potamius died on the way to the estate he had been given for his subscription, and Florentius of Emerita, who knowingly communicated with Ossius and Potamius, was thrown from his throne three times and died; the petitioners present both as God's judgment.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 17Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · In the East the Arians deposed and reordained bishops who had signed their formula, and the exiled Nicene bishops decreed by letter that such bishops could be received only to lay communion as penitents.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 18Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · Under Julian the exiled bishops returned, and under Jovian the bishops who had signed at Ariminum returned to the Nicene faith; some confessors received them, but the petitioners hold that this contradicts Scripture.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 20Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · Zosimus, set up at Naples in place of the exiled Maximus, was condemned by Maximus and by Lucifer of Cagliari; his tongue, the petitioners say, hung out of his mouth whenever he tried to celebrate, until he gave up the see.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 32Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · At Eleutheropolis in Palestine the consecrated virgin Hermione and the house of the former tribune Severus, refusing communion with compromised bishops, received the visiting Luciferian bishop Ephesius.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 5Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Penitents who return to military service, the shows, new marriages, or sexual relations are barred from communion except as viaticum at death.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 6Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Monks and nuns who have broken their vows and had children are to be expelled and do penance, receiving communion only at death.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 14Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Former penitents may not be ordained; penitents, twice-married men, and husbands of widows ordained in ignorance are not to be promoted.
Letter 5 to the bishops of Africa, chapter 4Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Keeping these rules will bring unity and the peace Christ left; anyone who departs from them is excluded from communion.
Letter 7 to various bishops, against Jovinian, chapter 4Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · The Roman clergy unanimously excommunicated Jovinian and eight of his followers; Siricius sends the decision to Milan by three presbyters.
Letter 10, canons of the Roman synod to the bishops of Gaul, chapter 3Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · A consecrated, veiled virgin who falls or marries is guilty of breaking her vow to Christ and must do penance for many years before pardon.
Letter 10, canons of the Roman synod to the bishops of Gaul, chapter 17Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · A cleric excommunicated by his own bishop may not be received, even to lay communion, by another church; a bishop who receives or promotes him shares his guilt and loses communion with the apostolic see.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.43.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Sins after baptism require penance; only the penitent can rightly ask God to remove his reproach.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.27.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · In the church’s penance, excommunicated sinners must not be readmitted too easily, for easy pardon invites sin.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.27.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The bishop must cut off the infected member to protect the whole church.
Exposition of Psalm 118 9.4.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Exclusion from the church for penance, as with the Corinthian sinner, is exclusion for good.
Exposition of Psalm 118 16.13.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Only those who do the devil’s works are handed to Satan, like the incestuous man at Corinth.
Letter 54.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sets out the arguments for and against daily communion and concludes that both sides honour the sacrament and should remain in peace.
Letter 63.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains how he rebuked those responsible, admonished Timothy and Carcedonius, and prayed, before Timothy left for Milevis.
Letter 78.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains why he has not removed Boniface’s name from the clergy list but will leave it unread if the people wish, since only a guilty conscience removes a name from the book of life.
Letter 87.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that no one is defiled by unknown sinners, and that even known sinners do not harm the good who mourn their sins, as Ezekiel and Paul show.
Letter 95.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine confesses daily uncertainty about when and how to punish or forgive in the church, citing conflicting Scriptural commands.
Letter 105.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Catholics correct the bad where they can and tolerate the rest without sharing their sins, as Christ's parables of the tares, chaff and net teach, and as he bade obey bad leaders' teaching.
Letter 108.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine quotes Cyprian's warning that only the Lord may separate wheat from tares, and that those who presume to do so perish from the church.
Letter 153.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those whom bishops rescue from the sentence are still barred from the altar to do penance, and if God is patient even with the impenitent, bishops should be merciful to those who promise amendment.
Letter 153.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Even those who relapse after the church's once-only public penance are not beyond God's patience, and their repentance still profits them for the life to come.
Letter 153.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · A bishop who shields someone from making restitution shares his crime; bishops rebuke such people and may exclude them from communion.
Letter 173.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Examples from Israel, Paul's conversion, fatherly discipline, and the shepherds of Ezekiel justify restraining a bad will.
Letter 181.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those who deny the need for divine help are enemies of the faith and unworthy of communion, and must be removed from the church.
Letter 181.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Innocent excommunicates the Pelagians but allows the bishops to receive them back if they repent and condemn their views.
Letter 182.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Innocent excommunicates Pelagius and Caelestius and all who obstinately defend their views.
Letter 185.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · There is just and unjust persecution: the church pursues the ungodly out of love to correct them, as Sarah disciplined Hagar.
Letter 185.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Teaching is better than compulsion, but more people are corrected by fear; Scripture approves discipline for those words do not reach.
Letter 185.45Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The rule barring penitents from clerical office is discipline, not denial of pardon, and may be relaxed to heal a whole people's schism.
Letter 191.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Sixtus to restrain open Pelagians, watch over those who spread the error secretly, and patiently teach those who have fallen silent out of fear.
Letter 209.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine reports that Antoninus was cleared of charges of sexual immorality but found guilty of oppression and extortion, for which he was ordered to make restitution rather than deposed.
Letter 209.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Antoninus kept his episcopal rank but was removed from authority over the people of Fussala, whose resentment was dangerous.
Letter 209.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Celestine to study the records of Antoninus's conduct and how he deceived the primate of Numidia into commending him to Pope Boniface.
Letter 209.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine rebuts Antoninus's claim that he must either keep his see or lose his rank, arguing that a bishop can be punished without being deposed.
Letter 211.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine prescribes a procedure of private warning, witnesses, report to the prioress, and correction or expulsion for sisters who persist in faults.
Letter 236.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine informs Bishop Deuterius that Victorinus, an aged subdeacon of Malliana, has confessed to being a Manichaean Hearer.
Letter 236.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks Deuterius to depose Victorinus from clerical rank and to admit him to penance only if he names other Manichees in the province.
Letter 250.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks the young bishop Auxilius by what right he excommunicated Count Classicianus together with his whole household, since spiritual punishment binds souls and each soul answers for its own sin.
Letter 250.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says he has never dared to excommunicate a whole household, since innocents would be punished and some might die unbaptized, and asks Auxilius for his reasons.
Letter 250.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Auxilius, if Classicianus did no wrong, to withdraw the sentence, admitting that bishops too can act in anger, and to restore peace.
Letter 265.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says the claim that the apostles gave penance instead of baptism, with no penance after baptism, is foreign to Catholic faith, whether or not Novatianists hold it.
Letter 265.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes penance before baptism, as in Acts 2:38, from the public penance of baptized sinners, as in 2 Cor 12:21 and the case of Simon Magus.
Homilies on Matthew 17.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The habit of swearing can be overcome easily by practice and the watchfulness of one’s household; Chrysostom refuses applause in place of obedience, threatens to bar persistent swearers from the mysteries, and warns by the example of Eli.
Homilies on Matthew 23.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom explains that “judge not” does not forbid reproof and correction, which Scripture commands, but forbids those full of great sins from harshly condemning others for small ones.
Homilies on Matthew 30.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ dines with Matthew and the tax collectors to heal them, as a physician bears with the sick; he answers the Pharisees from common reason and from Scripture, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”
Homilies on Matthew 60.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ teaches the wronged to reprove the offender privately, then before two or three, then before the church, seeking his healing rather than revenge, and binds the incorrigible; he promises that those who agree in prayer will be heard, though prayer fails when it asks what is harmful, seeks vengeance, or comes from the unrepentant.
Homilies on Matthew 82.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom charges the deacons who distribute the Eucharist to keep known sinners from the table, whatever their rank, since the unworthy communicant is worse than the possessed, and declares he would rather give his life than give the Lord’s blood to the unworthy, while urging that such sinners be corrected and brought back.
On Elijah and Fasting 82Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The church must separate the unrepentant from the altar, so that by correction they may return to the sacraments.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.10.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The church, like Rachel, weeps for the sinner until he returns.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.37.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The church must loose those the Lord wills to be loosed.
Canon 4Anonymous · 390 · A penitent in danger of death may be reconciled by a presbyter at the bishop's command.
Tractates on Matthew 4.4Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that salt loses its savour in those who abandon the faith for heresy or paganism, like Judas, and are cast out of the church.
Sermon 4.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Bearing others' sins means rebuking sinners while patiently tolerating them, out of the love without which nothing profits.
Sermon 4.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The nations serve only the spiritual: in the Church spread through the world the carnal are mixed with the spiritual, who profit from bearing with them until the final winnowing.
Sermon 4.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Like Isaac, the Church under constraint tolerates the wicked and admits them to the sacraments for the sake of peace, though they eat judgment to themselves unless they change.
Sermon 17.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Habitual sins such as drunkenness deaden the conscience; the Church is slow to excommunicate, but God, silent now while Christ is in heaven, will not keep silent when he comes to judge.
Sermon 17.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · People neither forgive nor ask forgiveness; Christ's rule of correction ends in treating the unrepentant as a heathen, who, however devout his outward signs, is dead.
Sermon 47.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The he-goats are mixed with the sheep and the weeds with the wheat until the judgment; the servants are not to separate them before the harvest, though discipline must still be exercised.
Sermon 82.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Rebuke must come from love for the sinner, whom it gains; sinning against a brother is sinning against Christ.
Sermon 82.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The one wronged must not neglect the wrongdoer’s wound but rebuke him privately, then before witnesses and the Church, binding and loosing justly for his salvation.
Sermon 82.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Sins known only to you are to be rebuked privately, as Joseph meant to deal privately with Mary; sins committed publicly are to be rebuked publicly.
Sermon 82.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A bishop rebukes secret sins, such as hidden murder or adultery, in secret, without betraying the sinner, yet warns that adultery is a deadly wound.
Sermon 83.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Forgiving from the heart does not abolish discipline; like a surgeon, one must sometimes correct firmly, privately or publicly as the sin requires.
Sermon 137.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine refuses requests for dishonest counsel and leaves judgment of his conscience to God; like Ezekiel’s watchman and the servant entrusted with money, the preacher must warn and give, and God will exact the return.
Sermon 164.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Others' sins do not justify leaving the Church, a flock and threshing floor mixed of good and bad; sharing Christ's table with a sinner does not share his sin, though church judges must still discipline the convicted.
Sermon 196.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine warns his congregation in advance not to take part in the pagan New Year festivities, recalling the discipline given to Christians who joined a pagan sea-bathing rite at midsummer.
Sermon 232.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine rebukes public penitents who go on sinning or stay in the order of penitents without amendment, urging them to change before sudden death.
Sermon 296.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine rebukes members of his church who drove away a returning Donatist who confessed rebaptism, and insists that such converts, even lapsed Catholics, be admitted to penance and later reconciled by their own will.
Sermon 392.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine tells the baptized who have committed adultery to do the church's penance publicly, as the emperor Theodosius did, rather than claim to confess to God in secret.
Sermon 392.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine rebukes the double standard by which husbands will not bear adulterous wives but expect wives to bear adulterous husbands, calls husbands to lead in chastity, and bars known adulterers from communion.
Lines 65–77Augustine of Hippo · 393 · The condemnation of Caecilian had no proper judges, accuser, witnesses, or proof; a bad bishop should have been deposed or else tolerated within the net.
Canon 3Anonymous · 394 (or 396)
Historia monachorum, chapter 14Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Eulogius, a priest who discerned the hidden sins of those coming to communion and sent them away to do penance.
Historia monachorum, chapter 32Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Piammon of Diolcos, who saw an angel record the names of worthy communicants, did penance with those omitted until they were reconciled, and was healed by the angel of the altar.
Canon 7Anonymous · 397 · Procedure for accusations against a bishop: hearing before the primate within a month (two if excused), suspension of a defendant who fails to appear, and penalties for an accuser who withdraws.
Canon 2Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Those who have done public penance are not to be ordained, except in need as door-keepers or readers.
Canon 13Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Those who attend church but never receive communion are to be admonished either to do penance or to communicate, on pain of exclusion.
Canon 15Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Clergy and religious must shun the excommunicated, on pain of excommunication themselves.
The Harmony of the Gospels 4.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Mark gathers here sayings given elsewhere because they fit the occasion: those who favor Christians will come to salvation, while members who cause stumbling must be cut off or tolerated like chaff.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 1.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · The absence of schism overseas does not prove those churches guilty: some offenders stayed hidden, others were convicted and stopped, and uncertain cases were left to God for peace.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Isaiah’s woe falls on those who commit or praise evil, not on those who tolerate bad men they cannot remove; the peacemaker corrects, excludes, or disapproves and bears with them while keeping the bond of peace.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Nothing is graver than schism, since the good can tolerate the bad without harm and use church discipline when it can be done without division; one departs from iniquity in heart now and will be separated in body at the end.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · ‘Do not take part in the works of darkness’ means not consenting and also rebuking for correction, but always within the peace of unity, lest the wheat be uprooted with the weeds.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · ‘Do not share in others’ sins; keep yourself chaste’ means not doing, not consenting to, and rebuking evil; Parmenian quoted Tyconius’s point that one need only not do the deeds of the wicked, a third of the truth, only to reject it.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · One is ‘mixed with the guilty’ only by consent; the righteous man who neither does nor approves evil stays incorrupt anywhere, and where he can, he also corrects, rebukes, and removes sinners in love, as far as peace allows.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · ‘A little leaven leavens the whole lump’ condemns the Donatists themselves, who readmitted the Maximianists and kept Optatus; the lump corrupted is only those who consent, though negligence in discipline, where peace allows it, risks consent.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · The command to distinguish holy and unholy is fulfilled by knowledge and judgment, as the servants recognized the weeds, while still letting both grow until the harvest.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Church discipline must serve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; the Donatists twist Paul’s ‘remove the evil from among yourselves’ into a warrant for schism.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Paul says ‘remove the evil from yourselves’, not ‘remove the bad’, because one who cannot expel the bad separates from them by not sharing their evil; yet neglect of possible discipline is itself a sin.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · In the case of the incestuous man at Corinth, Paul joined the rod with love: he called the church to mourn, handed the sinner to Satan for his salvation, told them to correct him as a brother, and later to forgive and comfort him, lest Satan break the bond of peace.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Whoever Paul meant in 2 Corinthians, he showed that discipline must proceed with love; the Donatists, who misread ‘the righteous will correct me in mercy’, persecuted the innocent Caecilian and flattered the tyrant Optatus.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthians’ boasting shows that pride over another’s sin is the leaven that corrupts; Christ, our Passover, taught humility, and the law of Christ is to bear one another’s burdens and keep unity in the bond of peace.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Lest sins be neglected, Paul forbade association with a so-called brother who is immoral, greedy, or the like, while Christians must not shun outsiders, whom they are to win for Christ.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Parmenian quoted only the end of 1 Cor 5, omitting ‘not even to eat with such a one’, because the Donatists themselves share the Lord’s table with greedy men, revilers, and drunkards.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Cyprian lamented greedy, fraudulent bishops in his own communion, yet did not separate from them but shared the Lord’s table with them; either the church still existed then, or the Donatists have no origin.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Greed is no small sin, since Paul calls it idolatry and excludes the greedy from God’s kingdom; Cyprian nevertheless shared the Eucharist with greedy bishops, separating from them in heart to avoid schism.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · An objector argues that Paul’s ban on eating with immoral ‘brothers’, while allowing meals with pagans, requires bodily separation from bad Christians, so that tolerating them breaks the apostle’s command.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · The church excommunicates a member guilty of a notorious sin when no schism threatens and with love for his correction; when the whole congregation shuns him, he is shamed and healed.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Excommunication works when one notorious sinner stands among the unlike; when sin has spread to many, Paul and Cyprian chose mourning and left correction to God’s scourge, since separation would harm the weak and is sacrilegious.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Correct what can be corrected, bear the rest with love until God amends it or the harvest comes, and remove evil from oneself; any excommunication must aim at healing and keep the church’s peace.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Individuals can be excluded from the clergy, the church’s poor roll, the congregation, or a household table for their correction, but a multitude of sinners is better rebuked in public preaching, especially in times of calamity, as Cyprian did, while keeping unity.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 11.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Adam had to be separated from the tree of life, which either sustained his body or was a sacrament of wisdom, as the excommunicated are kept from the altar; the expulsion and the cherubim are real events with a spiritual meaning.
Canon 121 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · A bishop who neglects to win his Donatist places within six months of a warning loses them; no appeal lies from judges chosen by consent; a bishop negligent against heretics is excluded from communion.
Letter 3, chapter 1Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rebukes the bishops who broke communion because converted Priscillianists such as Symphosius and Dictinius were received and kept their rank, and urges unity.
Letter 3, chapter 3Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Bishop John and others whose communion is in doubt must either accept the Toledo settlement or be excommunicated.
Letter 6 to Exsuperius, chapter 1Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rules that deacons and presbyters who continued marital relations after ordination are to be deposed if they knew Siricius's ruling, and otherwise kept in their grade without promotion.
Letter 6 to Exsuperius, chapter 2Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rules that those who lived incontinently after baptism and ask for penance at death are to receive both penance and final communion.
Letter 16, chapter 1Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent tells Marcian of Naissus to receive clerics ordained by Bonosus before his condemnation, if their claim is true.
Letter 17, chapter 7Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent reverses an earlier sentence on Bishop Photinus at the Macedonian bishops’ request, defends the deacon Eustathius, and asks them to end the quarrels against him.
Letter 22, chapter 1Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent refuses to write to Atticus of Constantinople until Atticus himself asks for communion and shows he has met the conditions concerning John Chrysostom, as Antioch did.
Letter 25, chapter 7Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Penitents are reconciled on Maundy Thursday, at the priest’s judgment of their satisfaction, or earlier if in danger of death.
Letter 30, chapter 6Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent excommunicates Pelagius and Caelestius and all who obstinately defend them, while allowing their reception if they repent, and dates the letter 27 January 417.
Apology against Rufinus 2.18Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome translates more of Origen's letter to friends at Alexandria than Rufinus did, to show that it attacks the bishops who condemned him and that Rufinus cut its context.
Apology against Rufinus 3.23Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome quotes Epiphanius's letter to John of Jerusalem praying that Rufinus be freed from Origen's heresy, to refute Rufinus's claim that Epiphanius had given him the kiss of peace.
Letter 41Firmus of Caesarea · early fifth century · Firmus asks a bishop to punish and excommunicate a woman who abandoned her ascetic vow and robbed another woman.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 46.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The hireling flees in spirit when, for fear of losing human friendship, he fails to rebuke a grave sinner; fear is the flight of the mind.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 50.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · "Me you will not always have" was said to Judas as the figure of the wicked in the Church, as Peter, receiving the keys, figured the Church of the good.
City of God 5.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine praises Theodosius' faithfulness, prayer, clemency, support of the church, and public penance, and closes the first five books with a warning to pagan critics.
City of God 15.6Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The citizens of God's city, still weak from sin, are healed by mutual correction and forgiveness, but only as the Holy Spirit works within.
On Faith and Works 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · The occasion of the dispute: some wanted to baptize those remarried after divorce, whose unions Christ calls adultery, and extended this to all unrepentant sinners.
On Faith and Works 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · The mixture of good and bad in the church does not abolish discipline: Moses, Phinehas, and Paul all punished or excluded notorious sinners, though in love.
On Faith and Works 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Christ tolerated Judas and foretold weeds among the wheat, yet he also commanded church discipline, including exclusion; both tolerance and correction have their place.
On Faith and Works 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Sound teaching balances both: tolerate the wicked when discipline would harm peace, but exercise discipline when peace allows.
On Faith and Works 31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Refusing baptism to those who profess to persist in adultery is not uprooting the weeds early but refusing to sow them; such people themselves refuse to come to Christ.
On Faith and Works 48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Life must accord with baptism; there are grave sins requiring excommunication, lesser ones healed by rebuke, and daily sins forgiven through the Lord's Prayer.
On Faith and Works 49Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Conclusion: the wicked are tolerated without abandoning discipline; candidates must be taught how to live as well as what to believe; eternal life is not promised to dead faith, and those who openly intend to remain in adultery refuse Christ's gift.
Commentary on Jeremiah 1.73Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Only penance in mind and deed can protect the church from the lion that ravages it.
Commentary on Jeremiah 5.63Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jeremiah's letter tells the exiles to build, plant, marry, multiply, and pray for Babylon's peace, since their stay will be long; Jeremiah himself was forbidden marriage because of the short time, as Paul says. Spiritually, those cast out of the church should build on rock, take wisdom and the virtues as wives, and seek the church's peace (Jer 29:1–7).
Letter 4, chapter 4Zosimus, bishop of Rome · 417–418 · Zosimus declares Tuentius and Ursus anathematized and to be refused communion everywhere.
Letter 3, chapter 1Boniface I, bishop of Rome · 418–422 · Boniface reports the charges of the clergy of Valence against their bishop Maximus, who is accused of Manichaeism and homicide and has repeatedly evaded trial.
Letter 13, chapter 4Boniface I, bishop of Rome · 418–422 · Boniface excommunicates three Thessalian bishops, leaving them only Rufus’s intercession, and deposes the irregularly ordained Maximus.
Letter 15, chapter 7Boniface I, bishop of Rome · 418–422 · Boniface forbids, on pain of excommunication, any reopening of the case of Perigenes, whose appointment Peter has confirmed.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine explains “Do not give what is holy to dogs,” and rules that dying catechumens living in adulterous second marriages may be baptized, and dying penitents reconciled.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine answers the objection that forbidding remarriage tempts men to murder: the same objection would apply to the undisputed adultery of marrying a wife unjustly divorced.
The Institutes 2.15John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · After the office the monks work in silence, meditating on Scripture; private conversations or gatherings are punished by public penance.
The Institutes 2.16John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · No one may pray with a brother suspended from prayer until the abbot publicly reconciles him, since he is delivered to Satan for correction.
The Institutes 3.7John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · A monk late for a day office must wait outside and do penance before he may attend the next; at night he may come as late as the second psalm.
The Institutes 4.16John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Minor faults such as breaking a jar or lateness are atoned by public prostration; grave faults are punished by beating or expulsion.
The Institutes 10.16John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Paul orders separation from the disobedient, but as a brother to be corrected, not as an enemy.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 65Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Even grave crimes can be forgiven in the Church through penance measured by sorrow; church leaders rightly set times of penance, since sins are remitted only in the Church, which has the Spirit.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 80Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Sins become thought trivial when customary, so that many now go without church discipline, as Augustine lamented in his commentary on Galatians.
The Conferences 7.30John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The possessed should be prayed for as fellow members; the Egyptian elders never barred them from communion but would give it daily, since the sacrament drives out the demon.
On Rebuke and Grace 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · One who refuses rebuke must be rebuked for that very refusal; rebuke, like preaching and prayer, is a means God uses, though he can correct without it, as with Peter and Paul.
On Rebuke and Grace 15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Superiors should rebuke with love, even by excommunication, which can heal; since we do not know who is predestined, we must will all to be saved, as God makes us will, and must not neglect rebuke.
On Rebuke and Grace 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Rebuke must not be neglected, for the watchman is answerable; since we cannot tell who is predestined, we rebuke all with love, while praying for the grace by which what is commanded is done.
Celestine, ACO I.2, letter 1.7Celestine I, bishop of Rome · 430-432 · Nestorius may be pardoned if he corrects himself; if he persists he must be cut off, and those he excommunicated remain in communion.
Celestine, ACO I.2, letter 2.9Celestine I, bishop of Rome · 430-432 · After three admonitions, Nestorius is cut off from the Christian college unless he corrects himself; instead of feeding the flock he poisons it.
Celestine, ACO I.2, letter 2.18Celestine I, bishop of Rome · 430-432 · Celestine's sentence: Nestorius must condemn his teaching in writing within ten days of notice or be excommunicated; Cyril is to act for Rome.
Canon 1Anonymous · 439 · The two bishops who performed the ordination are received into communion but barred for life from ordinations and councils, following the synod of Turin.
Letter 159 to Nicetas of Aquileia, chapter 4Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Leo rules that wives who refuse to return to their returning husbands, preferring their second husbands, are to be excommunicated.
Letter 159 to Nicetas of Aquileia, chapter 5Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Leo rules that captives who ate sacrificial food under fear or hunger are to be restored after penance measured by compunction rather than time.
Canon 3Anonymous · 441 · Penitents in danger of death receive communion as viaticum without the reconciling laying on of hands; if they recover they complete their penance.
Letter 1 (= Leo, Ep. 22), chapter 4Flavian of Constantinople · 448-449 · Flavian tells Leo that Eutyches has been deposed and excommunicated and asks him to inform the bishops under him.